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A 402754
I
\
* ,
* »
« •
MONTCALM AND WOLFE.
FEANCE AND ENGLAND IN
NOETH AMEEICA.
Part Seventh.
RT
FRANCIS PARKMAN.
m TWO VOLUMES.
Vol. I.
BOSTON:
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
1910.
CopfrigM, im,
Bt Francis Parkmav.
Copyright, 2897, 1898,
Bt Littub, Brown, and Coxpant
TO
HARVARD COLLEGE,
THE ALMA MATER UITDER WHOSE INFLUENCE THE
PURPOSE OF WRITING IT WAS CONCEIVED,
THIS BOOK
IS AFFECTIONATELT INSCRIBED.
PREFACE.
The names on the titlepage stand as repre-
sentative of the two nations whose final contest
for the control of North America is the subject
of the book.
A very large amount of impublished material
has been used in its preparation, consisting for
the most part of documents copied from the
archives and libraries of France and England,
especially from the Archives de la Marine et des
Colonies, the Archives de la Guerre, and the
Archives Nationales at Paris, and the Public
Record Office and the British Museum at Lon-
don. The papers copied for the present work
in France alone exceed six thousand folio pages
of manuscript, additional and supplementary to
the " Paris Documents " procured for the State
of New York under the agency of Mr. Brodhead,
The copies made in England form ten volumes,
besides many English documents consulted in
^i230S7
viii PREFACK
the original manuscript. Great numbers oi
autograph letters, diaries, and other writings
of persons engaged in the war have also been
examined on this side of the Atlantic.
I owe to the kindness of the present Marquis
de Montcalm the permission to copy all the let-
ters written by his ancestor, General Montcalm,
when in America, to members of his family in
France. Greneral Montcalm, from his first ar-
rival in Canada to a few days before his death,
also carried on an active correspondence with
one of his chief officers, Bourlamaque, with
whom he was on terms of mtunacy. These
autograph letters are now preserved in a private
collection. I have examined them, and obtained
copies of the whole. They form an interesting
complement to the official correspondence of the
writer, and throw the most curious side-lights
on the persons and events of the time.
Besides manuscripts, the printed matter in the
form of books, pamphlets, contemporary news-
papers, and other publications relating to the
American part of the Seven Years' War, is
varied and abundant ; and I believe I may safely
say that nothing in it of much consequence has
escaped me. The liberality of some of the older
States of the Union, especially New York and
PREFACE. It
Pennsylvania, in printing the volimiinous records
of their colonial history, has saved me a deal of
tedious labor.
The whole of this published and unpublished
mass of evidence has been read and collated with
extreme care, and more than common pains have
been taken to secure accuracy of statement.
The study of books and papers, however, could
not alone answer the purpose. The plan of the
work was formed in early youth j and though
various causes have long delayed its execution,
it has always been kept in view. Meanwhile, I
have visited and examined every spot where
events of any importance in connection with the
contest took place, and have observed with at-
tention such scenes and persons as might help to
illustrate those I meant to describe. In short,
the subject has been studied as much from life
and in the open air as at the library table.
These two volumes are a departure from chro-
nological sequence. The period between 1700
and 1748 has been passed over for a time.
When this gap is filled, the series of " France
and England in North America ** will form a
continuous history of the French occupation of
the continent.
The portrait in the first volume is from a
li ! PREFACE.
photograph of the original picture in possession
df the Marquis de Montcalm ; that in the second,
from a photograph of the original picture in
^sescdon of Admiral Warde.
BoBTOK, September 16, ISSii
". .f
\ .
f. . . ■ . :
CONTENTS.
Paob
iMTBODUOnOH ••••• 3
CHAPTER L
1745-1755.
THS 0OMBATAHT8.
England in the Eighteenth Centuiy: her Political and Social
Aspects ; her Military Condition. — Fhmce : her Power
and Importance. — Signs of Decay. -* The Court, the Nobles,
the Clergy, the People. — The King and Pompadour. — The
Philoeophers. — Gtormany. — Prossia. — Frederic II. — Rna-
sia. — State of Europe. — War of the Austrian Succession.
— American Colonies of France and England. — Contrasted
Systems and their Results. — Canada: its Strong Military
Position. — French Claims to the Continent. —| British Colo-
nies. — New England. — Virginia. — Pennsylvania. — New
York. — JealouBies, Divisiona, Internal Disputes^ — Militazy
Weaknev 9
CHAPTER n.
174»-1752.
CiLOROir DB BIBmriLLS.
La Galissoniire. — English Encroachment. — Mission of C^oron.
— The Great West: its European Claimants; its Indian
Population. — English Fur-traders. — C^ron on the Alle-
ghany: hia Reception; his Difficulties. — Descent of the
Ohio. — Covert Hostility. — Ascent of the Miami. — La
Demoiselle. — Dark Prospects for France. — Christopher
Gist, George Croghan: their Western Mission. — Picka-
willany. — English Ascendency. — English Dissension and
Rivalry.— TheKey of the Great West 39
ZU CONTENXa
CHAPTER m
1749-1758.
ookflict for thb ws8t.
Taqu
TIm FiTe Natioiii.^ CftDghnawaga. — Abb^ Piqnet : his Schemes ;
his Jonrnej. — Fort Frontenac. — Toronto. — Niagara. —
Oswego. — Success of Piqnet. — Detroit. — La Jonqni^re :
his Intrigues ; his Trials ; his Death. — English Intrigues. —
Critical State of the West. ^ Pickawiilany destroyed.—
Dnquesne: his Grand Enterprise 67
CHAPTER IV.
1710-1754.
OOirrLICT FOR ACADIA.
Acadia ceded to England. — Acadians swear Fidelity. — Halifax
founded. — French Intrigue. — Acadian Priests. *- Mildness
of English Rule. — Covert Hostility of Acadians. — The New
Oath.— Treachery of Versailles. — Indians incited to War.
— Clerical Agents of Revolt. — Abb6 Le Loutre. — Acadians
impelled to emigrate. — Misery of the Emigrants. — Humanity
of ComwaUis and Hopson. — Fanaticism and Violence of Le
Loutre. — Capture of the " St. Fhm9ois." — The English at
Beaubassin. — Le Loutre drives out the Inhabitants. — Mur-
der of Howe. — Beaus^jour. — Insolence of Le Loutre: his
Harshness to the Acadians. — The Boundary Commission :
itiFailure. — Approaching War M
CHAPTER V.
1753, 1754.
WAtHIXOTOir.
TIm French occupy the Sources of the Ohio : their Sufferings. — >
Fort Le Bosul — Legardeur de Saint-Pierre. — Mission of
Washington.*- Robert Dinwiddle: he opposes the French;
his Dispute with the Burgesses; his Energy; his Ap-
peals lor Help. — Fort Duquesne. — Death of Jumonville. —
Washington at the Great Meadows. — Coulon de VilUers. —
Ibft Necesnty 133
CONTENTS. xiis
CHAFTEB VL
1754, 1755.
TBB BIOKAL OF BA^IA.
PA4»
Tioables of Dinwiddie. — Gathering of the Borgegses. — Vix^
ginian Society. — Refractorj Legislators. — The Qnaker As-
sembly: it refuses to resist the French. — Apathj of New
York. — Shirley and the General Court of Kassachnsetts. —
Short-sighted Policy. — Attitude of Royal Goremors. — In-
dian Allies waver. — Convention at Albany. — Scheme of
Union : it fails. — Dinwiddie and Glen. ^ Dinwiddle calls
on England for Help. — The Duke of Newcastle. — Weak-
ness of the British Cabinet— Attitude of France. — Mutual
Dissimulation. — Both Powers send Troops to America.—
Collision.— Capture of the ''Aldde" and the "Lis'' . • . IM
CHAFTEB VIL
1755.
BXADIMMX.
Arrival of Braddoek: hia Character. — Council at Alexandria.
— Plan of the Campaign. — Apathy of the Colonists. — Rage
of Braddoek. — Franklin. — Fort Cumberland. — Compoti-
tion of the Army. — Offended Friends. — The Biarch. — The
French Fort. — Savage Allies. — The Captive. — Beaujeu:
he goes to meet the English. — Passage of the Monongahela.
— The Surprise. — The Battle.— Rout of Braddoek: his
Death. — Indian Ferocity. — Reception of the 111 News.—
Weakness of Dunbar. — The Frontier abandoned • • • • 194
CHAFTEB Vm.
1755.
nXOTAL OF TRV ACADIAITS.
State of Acadia. —Threatened Invasion. — Peril of the English :
their Plans. — French Forts to be attacked.— Beaas^onr
and its Occupants.— French Treatment of the Acadians.—
John Winslow. — Siege and Capture of Beans^joar. — Atfci*
5dv CONTENTS.
Paob
tnde of Acadians.— Influence of their Priests: they refase
the Oath of Allegiance; their Condition and Character. —
Pretended Neutrals. — Moderation of English Authorities. ~^
The Acadians persist in their Refusal. — Enemies or Sub-
jects 1 — Choice of the Acadians. — The Consequence. — Their
Removal determined. — Winslow at Grand Pr^. — Conference
with Murray. — Summons to the Inhabitants : their Seizure ;
their Embfurkation ; their Fate ; their Treatment in Canada.
•—Misapprehension concerning them 243
CHAPTER IX.
1755.
DIBBKAU.
Expedition against Crown Point. — William Johnson. — Yau-
dreuil. — Dieskan. — Johnson and the Indians. — The Pro-
yincial Army. — Doubts and Delays. — March to Lake
George. — Sunday in Camp. — Advance of Dieskau : he
changes Plan. — Marches against Johnson. — Ambush. —
Rout of Provincials. — Battle of Lake George. — Rout of the
French.— Rage of the Mohawks. — Peril of Dieskau. — In-
action of Johnson. — The Homeward March. — Laurels of
Vidofy 996
CHAPTER X.
1755, 1756.
, 8HIBLBT. — BORDBB WAR.
Hie Niagara Campaign. — Albany. — March to Oswego. — Diffi-
culties. — The Expedition abandoned. — Shirley and Johnson.
— Results of the Campaign. — The Scourge of the Border. —
Trials of Washington. — Misery of the Settlers. — Horror of
their Situation. — Philadelphia and the Quakers. — Disputes
with the Penns. — Democracy and Feudalism. — Pennsyl-
vanian Population. — Appeals from the Frontier. — Quarrel of
Governor and Assembly. — Help refused. — Desperation of the
Borderers. — Fire and Slaughter. — The Assembly alarmed :
they pass a Mock Militia Law ; they are forced to yield . . 330
/■If.- . cl' :-.■_.
\
••• •••
•; . *
*
MONTCALM AND WOLFE.
INTRODUCTION.
It is the nature of great events to obscure the great
events that came before them. The Seven Tears'
War in Europe is seen but dimly through revolution-
ary convulsions and Napoleonic tempests; and the
same contest in America is half lost to sight behind
the storm-cloud of the War of Independence. Few
at this day see the momentous issues involved in it,
or the greatness of the danger that it averted. The
strife that armed all the civilized world began here.
^^Such was the complication of political interests,"
says Voltaire, ^^that a cannon-shot fired in America
could give the signal that set Europe in a blaze."
Not quite. It was not a cannon-shot, but a volley
from the hunting-pieces of a few backwoodsmen, com-
manded by a Virginian youth, George Washington.
To us of this day, the result of the American part
of the war seems a foregone conclusion. It was far
from being so; and very far from being so regarded
by our forefathers. > The numerical superiority of the
British colonies was offset by organic weaknesses
4 INTRODUCTION.
fatal to vigorous and united action. Nor at the out-
set did they, or the mother-country, aim at conquer-
ing Canada, but only at pushing back her boundaries.
Canada — using the name in its restricted sense —
was a position of great strength; and even whfen her
dependencies were overcome, she could hold her own
against forces far superior. Armies could reach her
only by three routes, — the Lower St. Lawrence on
the east, the Upper St. Lawrence on the west, and
Lake Champlain on the south. The first access was
guarded by a fortress almost impregnable by nature,
and the second by a long chain of dangerous rapids ;
while the third offered a series of points easy to
defend. During this same war, Frederic of Prussia
held his ground triumphantly against greater odds,
though his kingdom was open on all sides to attack.
It was the fatuity of Louis XV. and his Pompadour
that made the conquest of Canada possible. Had
they not broken the traditionary policy of France,
allied themselves to Austria, her ancient enemy, and
plunged needlessly into the European war, the whole
force of the kingdom would have been turned, from
the first, to the humbling of England and the defence
of the French colonies. The French soldiers left
dead on inglorious Continental battle-fields could
have saved Canada, and perhaps made good her claim
to the vast territories of the West.
But there were other contingencies. The posses-
sion of Canada was a question of diplomacy as well
as of war. If England conqueied her. she might
INTRODUCTION. 5
restore her, as she had lately restored Cape Breton.
She had an interest in keeping France alive on the
American continent. More than one clear eye saw,
at the middle of the last century, that the subjection
of Canada would lead to a revolf of the British
colonies. So long as an active and enterprising
enemy threatened their borders, they could not break
with the mother-country, because they needed her
help. And if the arms of France had prospered in
the other hemisphere; if she had gained in Europe
or Asia territories with which to buy back what she
had lost in America, then, in all likelihood, Canada
would have passed again into her hands.
The most momentous and far-reaching question
ever brought to issue on this continent was: Shall
France remain here, or shall she not? If, by diplo-
macy or war, she had preserved but the half, or less
than the half, of her American possessions, then a
barrier would have been set to the spread of the Eng-
lish-speaking races; there would have been no Revo-
lutionary War; and for a long time, at least, no
independence. It was not a question of scanty popu-
lations strung along the banks of the St. Lawrence ;
it was — or under a government of any worth it would
have been — a question of the armies and generals oi
France. America owes much to the imbecility of
Louis XV. and the ambitious vanity and personal
dislikes of his mistress.
The Seven Tears' War made England what she is.
It crippled the commerce of her rival, ruined France
€ INTRODUCTION.
in two continents, and blighted her as a colonial
power. It gave England the control of the seas and
the mastery of North America and India, made her
the first of commercial nations, and prepared that
vast colonial system tiiat has planted new Englands
in every quarter of the globe. And while it made
England what she is, it supplied to the United States
the indispensable condition of their greatness, if not
of their national existence.
Before entering on the story of the great contest,
we will look at the parties to it on both sides of the
Atlantic.
CHAPTER I.
1746-1756.
THE COMBATANTS.
Bpolahd IK THs Eighteenth Centubt: hsb Politioal akb
Social Aspects ; hbb Militabt Condition. — Fbancb : hbb
POWBB AND ImFOBTANCB. — SlONS OF DSCAT. — ThB CoUBT,
thb Nobubs, thb Clebqt, THB Pboplb. — The Kino and
PoMPADOuB. — Thb Philosophbbs. — Gebmant. — Pbussia. —
Fbbdbbic IL — Russia. — State of Eubopb. — Wab of thb
AuBTBiAN Succession. — Amebican Colonies of Fbancb and
England. — Contbabtbd Systems and theib Results. —
Canada: its Stbong Militabt Position. —Fbbnch Claims
TO THB Continent. — Bbitish Colonies. — New England.
— ViBGiNiA. — Pbnnstltania. — New Yobk. — Jealousies,
DmsiONS, Intbbnal Disputes. — Militabt Wbaknbss.
The latter half of the reign of GeoigfiJGL was one^
of the most prosaic period s in English history. The
civil wars and the Restoration had had their enthusi-
asms, religion and liberty on one side, and loyalty
on the other; but the old fires declined when William
m. came to the throne, and died to ashes under the
House of Hanover. Lojralty lost half its inspiration
when it lost the tenet of the divine right of kings;
and nobody could now hold that tenet with any con-
sistency except the defeated and despairing Jacobites.
Nor had anybody as yet proclaimed tiie rival dogma
V
I
8 THE COMBATANTS. [1746-1756i
of the divine right of the people. The reigiiing
monarch held his crown neither of God nor of the
nation, but of a parliament controlled by a ruling
class. The Whig aristocracy had done a priceless
service to English liberty. It was full of political
capacity, and by no means void of patriotism; but it
was only a part of the national life. Nor was it at
present moved by political emotions in any high
sense. It had done its great work when it expelled
the StuartB and placed William of Orange on the
throne; its ascendency was now complete. The
Stuarts had received their death-blow at Culloden;
and nothing was left to the dominant party but to
dispute on subordinate questions, and contend for
office among themselves. The Tory squires sulked
in their country-houses, hunted foxes, and grumbled
against the reigning dynasty, yet hardly wished to
see the nation convulsed by a counter-revolution and
another return of the Stuarts.
If politics had run to commonplace, so had morals ;
and so too had religion. Despondent writers of the
day even complained that British courage had died
out. There was little sign to the common eye that,
under a dull and languid surface, forces were at work
preparing a new life, material,' moral, and intel-
lectual. As yet, Whitefield and Wesley had not
wakened the drowsy conscience of the nation, nor
the voice of William Pitt roused it like a trumpet-
peal.
It was the unwashed and unsavory Ehgland of
1745-1755.] ENGLAND. 9
Hogarth, Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne; of Tom
Jones, Squire Western, Lady Bellaston, and Parson
Adams; of the ^^ Rake's Progress" and ^^ Marriage h
la Mode ; " of the lords and ladies who yet live in the
nndjning gossip of Horace Walpole, be-powdered,
be-patched, and be-rouged, flirting at masked balls,
playing cards till daylight, retailing scandal, and
exchanging double meanings. Beau Nash reigned
king over the gaming-tables of Bath; the ostrich-*
plumes of great ladies mingled with the peacock*
feathers of courtesans in the rotunda at Banelagh
Grardens; and young lords in velvet suits and em«
faroidered ru£9es played away their patrimony at
White's Chocolate-House or Arthur's Club. Vice
was bolder than to-day, and manners more courtly,
perhaps, but far more course. ^
The humbler cleigy were thought — sometimes
with reason — to be no fit company for gentlemen,
and country parsons drank their ale in the squire's
kitchen. The passenger-wagon spent the better part
of a fortnight in creeping from London to York.
Travellers carried pistols against footpads and '
mounted highwajrmen. Dick Turpin and Jack
Sheppard were popular heroes. Tyburn counted its
victims by scores; and as yet no Howard had ap-
peared to reform the inhuman abominations of the
prisons..
The middle class, though fast rising in importance,
was feebly and imperfectly represented ia Parliament.
The boroughs were controlled by the nobility and
10 THE COMBATANTS. [174&.1765.
gently, or by corporations open to influence or
bribery. Parliamentary corruption had been reduced
to a system; and offices, sinecures, pensions, and
gifts of money were freely used to keep ministers in
power. The great offices of State were held by men
sometimes of high ability, but of whom not a few
divided their lives among politics, cards, wine, horse-
racing, and women, till time and the gout sent them
to the waters of Bath. The dull, pompous, and
irascible old King had two ruling passions, — money,
and his Continental dominions of Hanover. His
elder son, the Prince of Wales, was a centre of oppo-
sition to him. His younger son, the Duke of Cum-
berland, a character far more pronounced and vigorous,
had won the day at Culloden, and lost it at Fontenoy ;
but whether victor or vanquished, had shown the
same vehement bull-headed courage, of late a little
subdued by fast-growing corpulency. The Duke of
Newcastle, the head of the government, had gained
power and kept it by his rank and connections, his
wealth, his county influence, his control of boroughs,
and the extraordinary assiduity and devotion with
which he practised the arts of corruption. Henry
Fox, grasping, unscrupulous, with powerful talents,
a warm friend after his fashion, and a most indulgent
fother; Carteret, with his strong, veisatile intellect
and jovial intrepidity; the two Townshends, Mans-
field, Halifax, and Chesterfield, — were conspicuous
figures in the politics of the time. One man towered
above them all. Pitt had many enemies and many
/
174&-17W.] PRANCE. 11
critics. They called him ambitious, audacious, arro-
gant, theatrical, pompous, domineering; but what he
has left for posterity is a loftiness of soul, undaunted
courage, fiery and passionate eloquence, proud incor-
ruptibility, domestic virtues rare in his day, un-
bounded faith in the cause for which he stood, and
abilities which without wealth or strong connections
were destined to place him on the lieight of power.
The middle class, as yet almost voiceless, looked to
him as its champion; but he was not the champion of
a class. His patriotism was as comprehensive as it
was haughty and unbending. He lived for England,
loved her with intense devotion, knew her, beUeved
in her, and made her greatness his own; or rather,
he was himself England incarnate.
The nation was not then in fighting equipment.
After the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the army within
the three kingdoms had been reduced to about eigh-
teen thousand men. Added to these were the g^ar-
lisons of Minorca and Gibraltar, and six or seven
independent companies in the American colonies.
Of sailors, less than seventeen thousand were left in
the Royal Navy. Such was the condition of England
on the eve of one of the most formidable wars in
which she was ever engaged.
Her rival across the Channel was drifting slowly
and unconsciously towards the cataclysm of the
Revolution; yet the old monarchy, full of the germs
of decay, was still imposing and formidable. The
12 THE COMBATAKXa [1745-175&
House of Bourbon held the three thrones of Frarice,
Spain, and Naples ; and their threatened union in a
family compact was the terror of European diplomacy.
At home France was the foremost of the Continental
nations; and she boasted herself second only to
Spain as a colonial power. She disputed with Eng^
land the mastery of India, owned the islands of
Bourbon and Mauritius, held important possessions
in the West Indies, and claimed all North America
except Mexico and a strip of sea-coast Her navy
was powerful, her army numerous and well appointed ;
but she lacked the great commanders of the last reign.
Soubise, Maillebois, Contades, Broglie, and Clermont
were but weak successors of Cond^, Turenne, Ven-
d6me, and Villars. Marshal Richelieu was supreme
in the arts of gallantry, and more famous for con-
quests of love than of war. The best generals of
Louis XV. were foreigners. Lowendal sprang from
the royal house of Denmark ; and Saxe, the best of
all, was one of the three hundred and fifty-four bas-
tards of Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and
King of Poland. He was now, 1750, dying at Cham-
bord, his iron constitution ruined by debaucheries.
The triumph of the Bourbon monarchy was com-
plete. The government had become one great ma-
chine of centralized administration, with a king for
its bead ; though a king who neither could nor would
direct it. All strife was over between the Crown
and the nobles ; feudalism was robbed of its vitality,
and left the mere image of its former self, with noth-
1746-1766.] FRANCE. 18
ing alive but its abuses, its caste privileges, its ex**
actions, its pride and vanity, its power to vex and
oppress. In England,' the nobility were a living part
of the nation, and if they had privileges, they paid
for them by constant service to the State ; in France,
they had no political life, and were separated from
the people by sharp lines of demarcation. From
warrior chiefs, they had changed to courtiers. Those
of them who could afford it, and many who could
not, left their estates to the mercy of stewards, and
gathered at Versailles to revolve about the throne as
glittering satellites, paid in pomp, empty distinctions,
or rich sinecures, for the power they had lost. They
ruined their vassals to support the extravagance by
which they ruined themselves. Such as stayed at
home were objects of pity and scorn. " Out of your
Majesty's presence," said one of them, ^^we are not
only wretched, but ridiculous."
YersaiHes was like a vast and gorgeous theatre,
where all were actors and spectators at once; and all
played their parts to perfection. Here swarmed by
thousands this silken nobility, whose ancestors rode
cased in iron. Pageant followed pageant. A picture
of the time preserves for us an evening in the great
hall of the Ch&teau, where the King, with piles of
louis d^or before him, sits at a large oval green table,
throwing the dice, among princes and princesses,
dukes and duchesses, ambassadors, marshals of
Franco, and a vast throng of courtiers, like an ani-
mated bed of tulips; for men and women alike wear
14 THE COMBATANIS. [1745-175&
bright and varied colois. Above are the frescoes of
Le Brun; around are walls of sculptured and inlaid
marbles, with mirrors that reflect the restless splendors
of the scene and the blaze of chandeliers, sparkling
with crystal pendants. Pomp, magnificence, profu-
sion, were a business and a duty at the Court.
Versailles was a gulf into which the labor of France
poured its earnings; and it was never full.
Here the graces and charms were a political power.
Women had prodigious influence, and the two sexes
were never more alike. Men not only dressed in
colors, but they wore patches and carried mufEs.
The robust qualities of the old nobility still lingered
among the exiles of the provinces, while at Court
they had melted into refinements tainted with corrup-
tion. Tet if the butterflies of Versailles had lost
virility, they had not lost court^. They fought as
gayly as they danced. In the halls which they
haunted of yore, turned now into a historical picture-
gallery, one sees them still, on the canvas of Lenfant,
Lepaon, or Vemet, facing death with careless gal-
lantry, in their small three-cornered hats, powdered
perukes, embroidered coats, and lace ru£9es. Their
valets served them with ices in the trenches, under
the cannon of besieged towns. A troop of actors
formed part of the army-traip of Marshal Saxe. At
night there was a comedy, aqiSiit) or a ball, and in
the morning a battle. Saxe, ^however, himself a
sturdy Grerman, while he recognized their fighting
value, and knew well how to make the best of it.
1745-1755.] FRANCE. 15
sometimes complained that they were volatile, exoit-
able, and difficiUt to manage. ^
The weight of the Court, with its pomps, luxuries,
and wars, bore on the classes least able to support
it. The poorest were taxed most; the richest not at
all. The nobles, in the main, were free from imposts.
The clergy, who had vast possessions, were wholly
free, though they consented to make voluntary gifts
to the Crown; and when, in a time of emergency,
the minister Machault required them, in common
with all others hitherto exempt, to contribute a
twentieth of their revenues to the charges of govern-
ment, they passionately refused, declaring that they
would obey God rather than the King. The culti-
vators of the soil were ground to the earth by a
threefold extortion, — the seigniorial dues, the tithes
of the Church, and the multiplied exactions of the
Crown, enforced with merciless rigor by the farmers
of the revenue, who enriched themselves by wring-
ing the peasant on the one hand, and cheating the
King on the other. A few great cities shone with
all that is most brilliant in society, intellect, and
concentred wealth; while the country that paid the
costs lay in ignorance and penury, crushed and
despairing. On the inhabitants of towns, too, the
demands of the tax-gatherer were extreme; but here
the immense vitality of the French people bore up
the burden. While agriculture languished, and
intolerable oppression turned peasants into beggars
or desperadoes ; while the clergy were sapped by cor-
16 THE COMBATANTfik [1745-1766.
ruption, and the nobles enervated by luxuiy and
ruined by extravagance, — the middle class was grow-
ing in thrift and strength. Arts and commerce pros-
pered, and the seaports were alive with foreign trade.
Wealth tended from all sides towards the centre.
The King did not love his capital; but he and his
favorites amused themselves with adorning it. Some
of the chief embellishments that make Paris what it
is to-day — the Place de la Concordei the Champs
£lys^es, and many of the palaces of the Faubourg
St. Germain — date from this reign.
One of the vicious conditions of the time was the
separation in sympathies and interests of the four
great classes of the nation, — clergy, nobles, burghers,
and peasants; and each of these, again, divided itself
into incoherent fragments. France was an aggregate
of disjointed parts, held together by a meshwork of
arbitrary power, itself touched with decay. A dis-
astrous blow was struck at the national welfare when
the government of Louis XV. revived the odious
persecution of the Huguenots. The attempt to scour
heresy out of France cost her the most industrious
and virtuous part of her population, and robbed her
of those most fit to resist the mocking scepticism and
turbid passions that burst out like a deluge with the
Revolution.
Her manifold ills were summed up in the King.
Since the Valois, she had had no monarch so worth-
less. He did not want understanding, still less the
graces of person. In his youth the people called him
the ^ Well-bdoTed : " Lot br the ndddle of die c«&-
taxy tiiey so deusicd Liin xbMX he dired noc pui
thioogh Pazis. lesi the mob sfaoold execri&e him.
He had not the Ti^co- of the troe tmnt; hot his
Lu^uoT, his hiOT^d of &II eSoit. his prciooDd selfish-
DesB, bis listless disregard of paUic duty, sod his
effemimtie liberdmsia, mixed with sapeistitioos deTi>-
tioo, made him do less a nsrirmal cmse. Louis XIII.
was eqosIlT imfit to goTem; bat he gare the zeins to
the Great CaidinsL Louis XV. abandoiied them to
a friToloQS mistress, content that she should rule on
fOPi^jtinn of amiising him. It was a haid task; ret
Madame de Pcappadoor aee«nplished it by methods
infamoos to him and to her. She gained and long
kept the power that she coreted: filled the Bastille
witli her enemies; made and immade ministezs;
appointed and removed geneials. Great qnestions of
policy were at the mercj of her a^oices. Through
her firroloiis vanitr, her pezs<»ial likes and dislikes,
all the great departments of gOTemment — azmj,
naTT, war, foreign affairs, justice, finance — changed
from hand to hand incessantly, and this at a time of
crisis when the kingdom needed the steadiest and
sorest g^iudanoe. Few of the officers of State, except,
-p^Thmjm^ D^Aigenson, conld rentore to disiegaid
her. She turned out Orry, the comptroUer-generaL
pat her farorite, Machanlt, into his place, then made
hL "keeper of the seals, and at last minister of
marine. The Marquis de Paysienx, in the ministry
of foreign affairs, and the Comte de Saint-Florentin,
TOl* I. — 2
18 THE COMBATANTS. [1745.175&
charged with the affairs of the clergy, took their cue
from her. The King stinted her in nothing. First
and last, she is reckoned to have cost him thirty-
six million francs, —answering now to more than as
many dollars.
The prestige of the monarchy was declining with
the ideas that had given it life and strength. A
growing disi^spect ffr king, minist^, and clergy
was beginning to prepare the catastrophe that was
still some forty years in the future. While the
valleys and low places of the kingdom were dark
with misery and squalor, its heights were bright with
a gay society, — elegant, fastidious, witty, — craving
the pleasures of the mind as well as of the senses,
criticising everything, analyzing everything, believ-
ing nothing. Voltaire was in the midst of it, hating,
with all his vehement soul, the abuses that swarmed
about him, and assailing them with the inexhaustible
shafts of his restless and piercing intellect. Montes-
quieu was showing to a despot-ridden age the prin-
ciples of political freedom. Diderot and D'Alembert
were beginning their revolutionary EncyclopsBdia.
Rousseau was sounding the first notes of his mad
eloquence, — the wild revolt of a passionate and dis-
eased genius against a world of falsities and wrongs.
The salons of Paris, cloyed with other pleasures,
alive to all that was racy and new, welcomed the
pungent doctrines, and played with them as children
play with fire, thinking no danger; as time went on,
even embraced them in a genuine spirit of hope and
1745-1766.) THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. 19
good-will for humanity. The Revolution began at
the top, — in the world of fashion, birth, and intel-
lect, — and propagated itself downwards. " We
walked on a carpet of flowers," Count S^gur after-
wards said, "unconscious that it covered an abyss; "
till the gulf yawned at last, and swallowed them.
Eastward, beyond the Rhine, lay the heterogeneous
patchwork of the Holy Roman, or Germanic, Empire.
The sacred bonds that throughout the Middle Ages
had held together its innumerable fragments had lost
their strength. The empire decayed as a whole ; but
not so the parts that composed it. In the south the
House of Austria reigned over a formidable assem-
blage of States; and in the north the House of
Brandenburg, promoted to royalty half a century
before, had raised Prussia into an importance far
beyond her extent and population. In her dissevered
rags of territory lay the destinies of Germany. It
was the late King, that honest, thrifty, dogged, head-
strong despot, Frederic William, who had made his
kingdom what it was, trained it to the perfection of
drill, and left it to his son, Frederic II., the best
engine of war in Europe. Frederic himself had
passed between the upper and nether millstones of
paternal discipline. Never did prince undergo such
an apprenticeship. His father set him to the work
of an overseer, or steward, flung plates at his head
in the family circle, thrashed him with his rattan in
public, bullied him for submitting to such treatment,
20 THE COMBATANTS. [1745-1755.
and imprisoned him for trying to run away from it.
He came at last out of purgatory; and Europe felt
him to her farthest bounds. This bookish, philoso-
phizing, verse-making cynic and profligate was soon
to approve himself the first warrior of his time, and
one of the first of all time.
Another power had lately risen on the European
world. Peter the Great, half hero, half savage, had
roused the inert barbarism of Russia into a titanic
life. His daughter Elizabeth had succeeded to his
throne, — heiress of his sensuality, if not of his
talents. '>
Over all the continent the aspect of the times was
the same. Power had everywhere left the plains and
the lower slopes, and gathered at the summits.
Popular life was at a stand. No great idea stirred
the nations to their depths. The religious convul-
sions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were
over, and the earthquake of the French Revolution
had not begun. At the middle of the eighteenth
century the history of Europe turned on the balance
of power; the observance of treaties; inheritance and
succession; rivalries of sovereign houses struggling
to win power or keep it, encroach on neighbors, or
prevent neighbors from encroaching; bargains, in-
trigue, force, diplomacy, and the musket, in the
interest not of peoples but of rulers. Princes, great
and small, brooded over some real or fancied wrong,
1745-1765.] THE STATE OF EUROPE. 21
nuised some dubious claim bom of a maniage, a will,
or an ancient covenant fished out of the abyss of
time, and watched their moment to make it good«
The general opportunity came when, in 1740, the
Emperor Charles VI. died and bequeathed his per-
sonal dominions of the House of Austria to his
daughter, Maria Theresa. The chief Powers of
Europe had been pledged in advance to sustain the
will; and pending the event, the veteran Prince
Eugene had said that two hundred thousand soldiers
would be worth all their guaranties together. The
two hundred thousand were not there, and not a sov-
ereign kept his word. They flocked to share the
spoil, and parcel out the motley heritage of the
young Queen. Frederic of Prussia led the way,
invaded her province of Silesia, seized it, and kept
it. The Elector of Bavaria and the King of Spain
claimed their share, and the Elector of Saxony and
the King of Sardinia prepared to follow the example.
France took part with Bavaria, and intrigued to set
the imperial crown on the head of the Elector, think-
ing to ruin her old enemy, the House of Austria, and
rule Grermany through an emperor too weak to dis-
pense with her support. England, jealous of her
des^ns, trembling for the balance of power, and
anxious for the Hanoverian possessions of her King,
tbxew herself into the strife on the side of Austria.
It was now that, in the Diet at Presburg, the beauti-
ful and distressed Queen, her infant in her arms,
made her memorable appeal to the wild chivaliy of
22 THE C0MBATAKT8. [1745-1766.
her Hungarian nobles; and, clashing their swords,
they shouted with one voice: "Let us die for our
king, Maria Theresa;" Moriamur pro rege nostro^
Maria Theresid, — one of the most dramatic scenes in
history; not quite true, perhaps, but near the truth.
Then came that confusion worse confounded called
the war of the Austrian Succession, with its Mollwitz,
its Dettingen, its Fontenoy, and its Scotch episode
of Culloden. The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle closed
the strife in 1748. Europe had time to breathe; but
the germs of discord remained alive.
THE AMERICAN COMBATANTS.
The French claimed all America, from the Alle-
ghanies to the Rocky Mountains, and from Mexico
and Florida to the North Pole, except only the ill-
defined possessions of the English on the borders of
Hudson Bay; and to these vast regions, with adja-
cent islands, they gave the general name of New
France. They controlled the highways of the con-
tinent, for they held its two great rivers. First, they
had seized the St. Lawrence, and then planted them-
selves at the mouth of the Mississippi. Canada at
the north, and Louisiana at the south, were the keys
of a boundless interior, rich with incalculable possi-
bilities. The English colonies, ranged along the
Atlantic coast, had no royal road to the great inland,
and were, in a manner, shut between the mountains
and the sea. At the middle of the century they
1746-1756.] FRENCH COLONIES. 28
ntunbered in all, from Georgia to Maine, about eleven
hundred and sixty thousand white inhabitants. By
the census of 1754 Canada had but fifty-five Ihou-
' sand.^ Add those of Louisiana and Acadia, and the
whole white population under the French flag might
be something more than eighty thousand. Here is
an enormous disparity; and hence it has been argued
that the success of the English colonies and the
&ilure of the French was not due to difference of
religious and political systems, but simply to numeri-
. cal preponderance. But this preponderance itself
grew out of a difference of sjrstems. We have said
before, and it cannot be said too often, that in mak-
ing Canada a citadel of the State religion, — a holy
of holies of exclusive Roman Catholic orthodoxy, —
the clerical monitors of the Crown robbed their coun-
try of a transatlantic empire. New France could
not grow with a priest on guard at the gate to let in
none but such as pleased him. One of the ablest of
Canadian governors. La Galissoni&re, seeing the
feebleness of the colony compared with the vastness
of its claims, advised the King to send ten thousand
peasants to occupy the valley of the Ohio, and hold
back the British swarm that was just then pushing
its advance-guard over the Alleghanies. It needed
no effort of the King to people his waste domain,
not with ' ten thousand peasants, but with twenty
1 CenaiueM of Canada, It. 61. Rameau (La France aux Coltmien,
ii 81) estiiiuites the Canadian population, in 1765, at siztj-six thou-
sand, besides voyageura, Indian traders, etc. Yaudreuil, in 1760,
places it at seren^ thousand.
24 THE COMBATANTS. [1745-175a
times ten thousand Frenchmen of every station, —
the most industrious, most instructed, most dis*
ciplined by adversity and capable of self-rule, that
the country could boast. While La Galissoni^re was
asking for colonists, the agents of the Crown, set
on by priestly fanaticism, or designing selfishness
masked with fanaticism, were pouring volleys of
musketry into Huguenot congregations, imprisoning
for life those innocent of all but their faith, — the
men in the galleys, the women in the pestiferous
dungeons of Aigues Mortes, — hanging their ministers,
kidnapping their children, and reviving, in short,
the dragonnades. Now, as in the past century, many
of the victims escaped to the British colonies, and
became a part of them. The Huguenots would have
hailed as a boon the permission to emigrate under
the fleur-de-llB, and build up a Protestant France in
the valleys of the West. It would have been a bane
of absolutism, but a national glory; would have set
bounds to English colonization, and changed the face
of the continent. The opportunity was spumed.
The dominant Church clung to its policy of rule and
ruin. France built its best colony on a principle of
exclusion, and failed; England reversed the system,
and succeeded.
I have shown elsewhere the aspects of Canada,
where a rigid scion of the old European tree was set
to grow in the wilderness. The military governor,
holding his miniature court on the rock of Quebec ;
the feudal proprietors, whose domains lined the
1745-1766.] CANADA. 25
shores of the St. Lawrence; the peasant; the roving
bushranger; the half -tamed savage, with crucifix and
scalping-knife; priests; friars; nuns; and soldiers,
— mingled to form a society the most picturesque
on the continent. What distinguished it from the
France that produced it was a total absence of revolt
against the laws of its being, — an absolute conser-
vatism, an unquestioning acceptance of Church and
King. The Canadian, ignorant of everything but
what the priest saw fit to teach him, had never heard
of Voltaire ; and if he had known him, would have
thought him a devil. He had, it is true, a spirit of
insubordination bom of the freedom of the forest;
bat if his instincts rebelled, his mind and soul were
passively submissive. The unchecked control of a
hierarchy robbed him of the independence of intellect
and character, without which, under the conditions
of modem life, a people must resign itself to a posi-
tion of inferiority. Yet Canada had a vigor of her
own. It was not in spiritual deference only that she
differed from the country of her birth. Whatever
she had caught of its corruptions, she had caught
nothing of its effeminacy. The mass of her people
lived in a rude poverty, — not abject, like the peasant
of old France, nor ground down by the tax-gatherer;
while those of the higher ranks — all more or less en-
gaged in pursuits of war or adventure, and inured
to rough joumeyings and forest exposures — were
rugged as their climate. Even the French regular
troops, sent out to defend the colony, caught its
26 THE COMBATANTS. [1745-1765.
hardy spirit, and set an example of stubborn fight-
ing which their comrades at home did not always
emulate.
"^Canada lay ensconced behind rocks and forests.
All along her southern boundaries, between her and
her English foes, lay a broad tract of wilderness,
shaggy with primeval woods. Innumerable streams
gurgled beneath their shadows; innumerable lakes
gleamed in the fiery sunsets; innumerable mountains
bared their rocky foreheads to the wind. These
wastes were ranged by her savage allies, — M icmacs,
Etech^mins, Abenakis, Caughnawagas ; and no
enemy could steal upon her unawares. Through the
midst of them stretched Lake Champlain, pointing
straight to the heart of the British settlements, — a
watery thoroughfare of mutual attack, and the only
approach by which, without a long ditour by wilder-
ness or sea, a hostile army could come within striking
distance of the colony. The French advanced post
of Fort Frederic, called Crown Point by the English,
barred the narrows of the lake, which thence spread
northward to the portals of Canada guarded by Fort
St. Jean. Southwestward, some fourteen hundred
miles as a bird flies, and twice as far by the prac-
ticable routes of travel, was Louisiana, the second of
the two heads of New France ; while between lay the
realms of solitude where the Mississippi rolled its
sullen tide, and the Ohio wound its belt of silver
through the verdant woodlands.
To whom belonged this world of prairies and
1745-1765.] NEW ENGLAND. 27
forests? France claimed it by right of discovery and
occupation. It was her explorers who, after De
Soto, first set foot on it. The question of right, it is
true, mattered little; for, right or wrong, neither
claimant would yield her pretensions so long as she
had strength to uphold them; yet one point is worth
a moment's notice. The French had established an
excellent system in the distribution of their American
lands. Whoever received a grant from the Crown
was required to improve it, and this within reasonable
time. If he did not, the land ceased to be his, and
was given to another more able or industrious. An
international extension of her own principle would
have destroyed the pretensions of France to all the
countries of the West. She had called them hers for
three-fourths of a century, and they were still a howl-
ing waste, yielding nothing to civilization but beaver-
skins, with here and there a fort, trading-post, or
mission, and three or four pimy hamlets by the Mis-
sissippi and the Detroit. We have seen how she
might have made for herself an indisputable title,
and peopled the solitudes with a host to maintain it.
She would not; others were at hand who both would
and could; and the late claimant, disinherited and
forlorn, would soon be left to count the cost of her
bigotry.
The thirteen British colonies were alike, insomuch
as they all had representative governments, and a
basis of English law. But the differences among
28 THE COMBATANTS. [1745-1766.
them were great. Some were purely English; others
were made up of various races, though the Anglo-
Saxon was always predominant. Some had one pre-
vailing religious creed; others had many creeds.
Some had charters, and some had not. In most cases
the governor was appointed by the Crown; in Penn-
sylvania and Maryland he was appointed by a feudal
proprietor, and in Connecticut and Rhode Island he
was chosen by the people. The differences of dispo-
sition and character were still gijsater than those of
form.
The four northern colonies, known collectively as
New England, were an exception to the general rule
of diversity. The smallest, Rhode Island, had feat-
ures all its own; but the rest were substantially one
in nature and origin. The principal among them,
Massachusetts, may serve as the type of all. It was
a mosaic of little village republics, firmly cemented
together, and formed into a single body politic through
representatives sent to the " General Court " at Boston.
Its government, originally theocratic, now tended to
democracy, ballasted as yet by strong traditions of
respect for established worth and ability, as well as
by the influence of certain families prominent in
affairs for generations. Yet there were no distinct
class-lines, and popular power, like popular educa-
tion, was widely diffused. Practically Massachusetts
was almost independent of the mother-country. Its
-people were purely English, of sound yeoman stock,
with an abundant leaven drawn from the best of the
1745-1755.] NEW ENGLAND. 29
Puritan gentry; but their original character had
been somewhat modified by changed conditions of
life. A harsh and exacting creed, with its stiff for-
malism and its prohibition of wholesome recreation;
excess in the pursuit of gain, — the only resource left
to energies robbed of their natural play; the struggle
for existence on a hard and barren soil ; and the iso-
m
lation of a narrow village life, — joined to produce,
in the meaner sort, qualities which were unpleasant,
and sometimes repulsive. Puritanism was not an
unmixed blessing. Its view of human nature was
dark, and its attitude towards it one of repression.
It strove to crush out not only what is evil, but much
that is innocent and salutary. Human nature so
treated will take its revenge, and for every vice that
it loses find another instead. Nevertheless, while
New England Puritanism bore its peculiar crop of
faults, it produced also many good and soimd fruits.
An uncommon vigor, joined to the hardy virtues of
a masculine race, marked the New England type.
The sinews, it is true, were hardened at the expense
of blood and flesh, — and this literally as well aa
figuratively; but the staple of character was a sturdj/
conscientiousness, an undespairing courage, patriot*
ism, public spirit, sagacity, and a strong good sense.
A great change, both for better and for worse, has
since come over it, due largely to reaction against the
unnatural rigors of the past. That mixture, which
is now too common, of cool emotions with excitable
brains, was then rarely seen. The New England
80 THE COMBATANTS. [1745-1755.
colonies abounded in high examples of public and
private virtue, though not always under the most
prepossessing forms. They were conspicuous, more-
over, for intellectual activity, and were by no means
without intellectual eminence. Massachusetts had
produced at least two men whose fame had crossed
the sea, — Edwards, who out of the grim theology of
Calvin mounted to sublime heights of mjrstical specu-
lation; and Franklin, famous already by his discov-
eries in electricity. On the other hand, there were
few genuine New Englanders who, however person-
ally modest, could divest themselves of the notion
that they belonged to a people in an especial manner
the object of divine approval ; and this self -righteous-
ness, along with certain other traito, failed to com-
mend the Puritan colonies to the favor of their
fellows. Then, as now. New England was best
known to her neighbors by her worst side.
. In one point, however, she found general applause.
^ She was regarded as the most military among the
British colonies. This reputation was well founded,
and is easily explained. More than all the rest, she
lay open to attack. The long waving line of the
New England border, with its lonely hamlets and
scattered farms, extended from the Kennebec to
beyond the Connecticut, and was everywhere vulner-
able to the guns and tomahawks of the neighboring
French and their savage allies. The colonies towards
the south had thus far been safe from danger. New
York alone was within striking distance of the Cana-
1745-1765.] VIRGINIA. 81
dian war-parties. That province then consisted of a
line of settlements up the Hudson and the Mohawk,
and was little exposed to attack except at its nortliem
end, which was guarded by the fortified town of
Albany, with its outlying posts, and by the friendly
and warlike Mohawks, whose ^^ castles" were close
at hand. Thus New England had borne the heaviest
brunt of the preceding wars, not only by the forest,
but also by the sea; for the French of Acadia and
Cape Breton confronted her coast, and she was often at
Wows with them. Fighting had been a necesaiiy with
her, and she had met the emergency after a method
extremely defective, but the best that circumstances
would permit. Having no trained officers and no
disciplined soldiers, and being too poor to maintain
either, she borrowed her warriors from the workshop
and the plough, and officered them with lawyers,
merchants, mechanics, or farmers. To compare them
with good reg^ar troops would be folly; but they
did, on the whole, better than could have been ex-
pected, and in the last war achieved the brilliant
success of the capture of Louisbourg. This exploit,
due partly to native hardihood and partly to good
luck, greatly enhanced the military repute of New
England, or rather was one of the chief sources of it.
The great colony of Virginia stood in strong con-
trast to New England. In both the population was
English; but the one was Puritan with Roundhead
traditions, and the other, so far as concerned its gov*
eming class, Anglican, with Cavalier traditions. In
l'^>
82 THE COMBATANTS. [1746-1765.
the one, every man, woman, and child could read
and write; in the other, Sir William Berkeley once
thanked God that there were no free schools, and no
prospect of any for a century. The hope had found
fruition. The lower classes of Virginia were as un-
taught as the warmest friend of popular ignorance
could wish. New England had a native literature
more than respectable under the circumstances, while
Virginia had none; numerous industries, while
Virginia was all agriculture, with but a single crop;
a homogeneous society and a democratic spirit, while
her rival was an aristocracy. Virginian society was
distinctly stratified. On the lowest level were the
negro slaves, nearly as numerous as all the rest to-
gether; next, the indented servants and the poor
whites, of low origin, good-humored, but boisterous,
and sometimes vicious ; next, the small and despised
class of tradesmen and mechanics ; next, the farmers
and lesser planters, who were mainly of good English
stock, and who merged insensibly into the ruling
class of the great landowners. It was these last who
represented the colony and made the laws. They
may be described as English country squires trans-
planted to a warm climate and turned slave-masters.
They sustained their position by entails, and con-
stantly undermined it by the reckless profusion which
ruined them at last. Many of them were well bom,
with an immense pride of descent, increased by the
habit of domination. Indolent and energetic by
turns; rich in natural gifts and often poor in book-
1745-1755.] PENNSYLVANIA. 88
learning, though some, in the lack of good teaching
at home, had been bred in the English uniyersities;
high-spiiited, generous to a fault; keeping open house
in their capacious mansions, among vast tobacco-fields
and toiling negroes, and living in a rude pomp where
the fashions of St. James were somewhat oddly
grafted on the roughness of the plantation, — what
they wanted in schooling was supplied by an educa-
tion which books alone would have been impotent to
give, the education which came with the possession
and exercise of political power, and the sense of a
position to maintain, joined to a bold spirit of inde-
pendence and a patriotic attachment to the Old
Dominion. They were few in nimiber; they raced,
gambled, drank, and swore ; they did everything that
in Puritan eyes was most reprehensible; and in the
day of need they gave the United Colonies a body of
statesmen and orators which had no equal on^e
continent. A vigorous aristocracy favors the gi^wth
of personal eminence, even in those who are pot of
it, but only near it. 7(
The essential antagonism of Virginia and New
England was afterwards to become, and to remain for
a century, an element of the first influence in Ameri-
can history. Each might have learned much from
the other; but neither did so till, at last, the strife
of their contending principles shook the continent.
Pennsylvania differed widely from both. She was a
conglomerate of creeds and races, — English, Irish,
(Germans, Dutch, and Swedes; Quakers, Lutherans,
YOU I. — 3
84 THE COMBATANTS. [1745-1755
Presbyterians, Romanists, Moravians, and a variety
of nondescript sects. The Quakers prevailed in the
eastern districts; quiet, industrious, virtuous, and
serenely obstinate. The Germans were strongest
towards the centre of the colony, and were chiefly
peasants; successful farmers, but dull, ignorant, and
superstitious. Towards the west were the Irish, of
whom some were Celts, always quarrelling with their
German neighbors, who detested them; but the
greater part were Protestants of Scotch descent, from
Ulster; a vigorous border population. Virginia and
New England had each a strong distinctive character.
Pennsylvania, with her heterogeneous population,
had none but that which she owed to the sober
neutral tints of Quaker existence. A more thriving
colony there was not on the continent. Life, if
monotonous, was smooth and contented. Trade and
the arts grew. Philadelphia, next to Boston, was
the largest town in British America; and was, more-
over, the intellectual centre of the middle and southern
colonies. Unfortunately, for her credit in the ap-
proaching war, the Quaker influence made Pennsyl-
vania non-combatant. Politically, too, she was an
anomaly ; for, though utterly unfeudal in disposition
and character, she was under feudal superiors in the
persons of the representatives of William Penn, the
original grantee.
New York had not as yet reached the relative
prominence which her geographical position and
inherent strength afterwards gave her. The English,
1745-1766.] NEW YORK. 85
joined to the Dutch, the original settlers, were the
dominant population; but a half -score of other lan-
guages were spoken in the province, the chief among
them being that of the Huguenot French in the
southern parts, and that of the Germans on the
Mohawk. In religion, the province was divided
between the Anglican Church, with government
support and popular dislike, and numerous dissenting
sects, chiefly Lutherans, Independents, Presbyterians,
and members of the Dutch Reformed Church. The
little city of New York, like its great successor, was
the most cosmopolitan place on the continent, and
probably the gayest. It had, in abundance, balls,
concerts, theatricals, and evening clubs, with plenti-
ful dances and other amusements for the poorer
classes. Thither in the winter months came the
great hereditary proprietors on the Hudson; for the
old Dutch feudality still held its own, and the manors
of Van Rensselaer, Cortland, and Livingston, with
their seigniorial privileges, and the great estates and
numerous tenantry of the Schuylers and other leading
families, formed the basis of an aristocracy, some of
whose members had done good service to the prov-
ince, and were destined to do more. Pennsylvania
was feudal in form, and not in spirit; Virginia in
spirit, and not in form; New England in neither;
and New York largely in both. This social crystal-
lization had, it is true, many opponents. In politics,
as in religion, there were sharp antagonisms and fre-
quent quarrels. They centred in the city; for in the
V
86 THE COMBATANTS. [1745-1755.
well-stocked dwellings of the Dutch farmers along
\ the Hudson there reigned a tranquil and prosperous
routine ; and the Dutch border town of Albany had
not its like in America for unruffled conservatism and
quaint picturesqueness.
Of the other colonies, the briefest mention will
suffice: New Jersey, with its wholesome population
of farmers; tobacco-growing Maryland, which, but
for its proprietary government and numerous Roman
Catholics, might pass for another Virginia, inferior in
growth, and less decisive in features; Delaware, a
modest appendage of Pennsylvania; wild and rude
North Carolina; and, farther on. South Carolina and
Georgia, too remote from the seat of war to take a
noteworthy part in iU JThe attitude of these various
colonies towards each other is hardly conceivable to
an American of the present time. They had no
political tie except a common allegiance to the British
Crown. Communication between them was difficult
and slow, by rough roads traced often through
primeval forests. Between some of them there was
less of sympathy than of jealousy kindled by con-
flicting interests or perpetual disputes concerning
boundaries. The patriotism of the colonist was
bounded by the lines of his government, except in
the compact and kindred colonies of New England,
which were socially united, though politically dis-
tinct. The country of the New Yorker was New
York, and the country of the Virginian was Virginia.
The New England colonies had once confederated;
1746-1766.] COLONIAL DISCORD. 87
bat| kindred as they were, they had long ago dropped
apart. William Penn proposed a plan of colonial
union wholly fruitless. James II. tried to unite all
the northern colonies under one government; but the
attempt came to naught. Each stood aloof, jealously
independent. At rare intervals, under the pressure
of an emergency, some of them would try to act in
concert; and, except in New England, the results
had been most discouraging. Nor was it this segre-
gation only that unfitted them for war. They were
all subject to popular legislatures, through whom
alone money and men could be raised; and these
elective bodies were sometimes factious and selfish,
and not always either far^ighted or reasonable.
Moreover, they were in a state of ceaseless friction
with their governors, who represented the King, or,
what was worse, the feudal proprietary. These dis-
putes. though varying in inteL^, ^ found every-
where except in the two small colonies which chose
their own governors ; and they were premonitions of
the movement towards independence which ended in
the war of Revolution. The occasion of difference
mattered little. Active or latent, the quarrel was
alwajrs present. In New York it turned on a ques-
tion of the governor's salary; in Pennsylvania on the
taxation of the proprietary estates ; in Virginia on a
fee exacted for the issue of land patents. It was
sure to arise whenever some public crisis gave the
representatives of the people an opportunity of extort-
ing concessions from the representative of the Crown,
88 THE COMBATANTS. [1746-1765.
or gave the representative of the Crown an oppor-
tunity to gain a point for prerogative. That is to
say, the time when action wias most needed was the
time chosen for obstructing it.
In Canada there was no popular legislature to
embarrass the central power. The people, like an
army, obeyed the word of command, — a military
advantage beyond all price.
Divided in government; divided in origin, feel-
ings, and principles ; jealous of each other, jealous of
the Crown; the people at war with the executive,
and, by the fermentation of internal politics, blinded
to an outward danger that seemed remote and vague,
— such were the conditions under which the British
colonies drifted into a war that was to decide the fate
of the continent.
This war was the strife of a united and concentred
few against a divided and discordant many. It was
the strife, too, of the past against the future ; of the
old against the new; of moral and intellectual torpor
against moral and inteUectual life;- of barren absolut-
ism against a liberty, crude, incoherent, and chaotic,
yet full of prolific vitality.
CHAPTER n.
1749-1762,
CiLORON DE BEENVILLB.
La GALiBSOiriiiiB. — English Encroachment. — Mission of C:feLO«
BOH. — Tbs Great West: its European Claimants; its
Indian Population. — English Fur-Traders. — C^loron on
THE Alleghany: his Reception; his Difficulties. — Des-
cent of the Ohio. — Cotert Hostility. — Ascent of the
Miami. — La Demoiselle. — Dark Prospects for France. —
Christopher Gist, George Croghan : their Western Mission.
— pickawillany. — english ascendency. — english dissbnr
SIGN AND Rivalry. — The Key of the Great West.
When the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed,
the Marquis de la Galissonidre ruled over Canada.
Like all the later Canadian governors, he was a naval
officer; and, a few years after, he made himself
famous by a victory, near Minorca, over the English
admiral Byng, — an achievement now remembered
chiefly by the fate of the defeated commander, judi-
cially murdered as the scapegoat of an imbecile
ministry. La Galissoniere was a humpback ; but his
deformed person was animated by a bold spirit and a
strong and penetrating intellect. He was the chief
representative of the American policy of France. He
felt that, cost what it might, she must hold fast to
Canada, and link her to Louisiana by chains of forts
40 CJfiLORON DE BIENVILLE. [1749-1752.
strong enough to hold back the British colonies, and
cramp their growth by confinement within narrow
limits ; while French settlers, sent from the mother-
country, should spread and multiply in the broad
valleys of the interior. It is true, he said, that
Canada and her dependencies have always been a
burden ; but they are necessary as a barrier against
English ambition ; and to abandon them is to abandon
ourselves; for if we suffer our enemies to become
masters in America, their trade and naval power will
grow to vast proportions, and they will draw from
their colonies a wealth that will make them pre-
ponderant in Europe.^
The treaty had done nothing to settle the vexed
question of boundaries between France and her rival.
It had but staved off the inevitable conflict. Mean-
while, the English traders were crossing the moun-
tains from Pennsylvania and Virginia, poaching on
the domain which France claimed as hers, ruining
the French fur-trade, seducing the Indian allies of
Canada, and stirring them up against her. Worse
still, English land speculators 'were beginning to
follow. Something must be done, and that promptly,
to drive back the intruders, and vindicate French
rights in the valley of the Ohio. To this end the
governor sent C^loron de Bienville thither in the
summer of 1749.
He was a chevalier de St. Louis and a captain in
1 La Galissoni^re, M€moire sur les Colonies de la France dans
"^Amiriqu/e septentrionale.
1749-1752.] EKRAND OF CELORON. 41
the colony troops. Under him went fourteen officers
and cadets, twenty soldiers, a hundred and eighty
Canadians, and a band of Indians, all in twenty-three
birch-bark canoes. They left La Chine on the fif-
teenth of June, and pushed up the rapids of the St.
Lawrence, losing a man and damaging several canoes
on the way. Ten days brought them to the mouth
of the Oswegatchie, where Ogdensburg now stands.
Here they found a Sulpitian priest, AbW Piquet,
busy at building a fort, and lodging for the present
under a shed of bark like an Indian. This enterpris-
ing father, ostensibly a missionary, was in reality a
zealous political agent, bent on winning over the red
allies of the English, retrieving French prestige, and
restoring French trade. Thus far he had attracted
but two Iroquois to his new establishment; and these
he lent to C^loron.
Reaching Lake Ontario, the party stopped for a
time at the French fort of Frontenac, but avoided
the rival English post of Oswego, on the southern
shore, where a trade in beaver-skins, disastrous to
French interests, was carried on, and whither many
tribes, once faithful to Canada, now made resort.
On the sixth of July C^loron reached Niagara. This,
the most important pass of all the western wilderness,
was guarded by a small fort of palisades on the point
where the river joins the lake. Thence, the party
carried their canoes over the portage road by the
cataract, and launched them upon Lake Erie. On
the fifteenth they landed on the lonely shore where
42 CiLORON DE BIENVILLE. [1749-1752,
tiie town of Portland now stands ; and for the next
seven days were busied in shouldering canoes and
baggage up and down the steep hills, through the
dense forest of beech, oak, ash, and elm, to the
waters of Chautauqua Lake, eight or nine miles dis-
tant. Here they embarked again, steering southward
over the sunny waters, in the stillness and solitude of
the leafy hills, till they came to the outlet, and glided
down the peaceful current in the shade of the tall
forests that overarched it. This prosperity was short.
The stream was low, in spite of heavy rains that
had drenched them on the carrying place. Father
Bonnecamp, chaplain of the expedition, wrote in his
Journal: "In some places — and they were but too
frequent — the water was only two or three inches
deep; and we were reduced to the sad necessity of
dragging our canoes over the sharp pebbles, which,
with all our care and precaution, stripped off large
slivers of the bark. At last, tired and worn, and
almost in despair of ever seeing La Belle Riviere, we
entered it at noon of the 29th." The part of the
Ohio, or " La Belle Riviere, " which they had thus
happily reached, is now called the Alleghany. The
Great West lay outspread before them, a realm of
wild and waste fertility.
French America had two heads, — one among the
snows of Canada, and one among the canebrakes of
Louisiana ; one communicating with the world through
the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the other through the
Gulf of Mexico. These vital points were feebly
J749-1752.] INDIANS OF THE WEST. 48
connected by a chain of military posts, — slender,
and often interrupted, — circling through the wilder-
ness nearly three thousand miles. Midway between
Canada and Louisiana lay the valley of the Ohio.
If the English should seize it, they would sever the
chain of posts, and cut French America asunder. If
the French held it, and intrenched themselves well
along its eastern limits, they would shut their rivals
between the Alleghanies and the sea, control all the
tribes of the West, and turn them, in case of war,
against the English borders, — a frightful and insup-
portable scourge.
The Indian population of the Ohio and its northern
tributaries was relatively considerable. The upper
or eastern half of the valley was occupied by mingled
hordes of Delawares, Shawanoes, Wjrandots, and
Iroquois, or Indians of the Five Nations, who had
migrated thither from their ancestral abodes within
the present limits of the State of New York, and who
were called Mingoes by the English traders. Along
with them were a few wandering Abenakis, Nipissings,
and Ottawas. Farther west, on the waters of the
Miami, the Wabash, and other neighboring streams,
was the seat of a confederacy formed of the various
bands of the Miamis and their kindred or affiliated
tribes. Still farther west, towards the Mississippi,
were the remnants of the Illinois.
France had done but little to make good her claims
to this grand domain. East of the Miami she had
no military post whatever. Westward, on the
44 CfiLORON DE BIENVILLE. [1749-1752.
Maumee, there was a small wooden fort, another on
the St. Joseph, and two on the Wabash. On the
meadows of the Mississippi, in the Illinois country,
stood Fort Chartres, — a much stronger work, and
one of the chief links of the chain that connected
Quebec with New Orleans. Its four stone bastions
were impregnable to musketry; and, here in the
depths of the wilderness, there was no fear that
cannon would be brought against it. It was the
centre and citadel of a curious little forest settlement,
the only vestige of civilization through all this
region. At Kaskaskia, extended along the borders
of the stream, were seventy or eighty French houses ;
thirty or forty at Cahokia, opposite the site of St.
Louis ; and a few more at the intervening hamlets of
St. Philippe and Prairie ^ la Roche, — a picturesque
but thriftless population, mixed with Indians, totally
ignorant, busied partly with the fur-trade, and partly
with the raising of corn for the market of New
Orleans. They communicated with it by means of a
sort of row galley, of eighteen or twenty oars, which
made the voyage twice a year, and usually spent ten
weeks on the return up the river. ^
The Pope and the Bourbons had claimed this wil-
derness for seventy years, and had done scarcely
more for it than the Indians, its natural owners.
1 Gordon, Journal, 1760, appended to Pownall, Topographical
Description, In the IMp6t des Cartes de la Marine at Paris, C.
4,010, are two curious maps of the Illinois Colony, made a little
after the middle of the century. In 1763 the Marquis Duquesne
denounced the colonists as dehauched and lazj.
1749-1752.] ENGLISH FUR-TRADERS. 46
Of the western tribes, even of those living at the
French poets, the Hurons or Wyandots alone were
Christian.^ The devoted zeal of the early mission*
aries and the politic efforts of their successors had
failed alike. The savages of the Ohio and the
Mississippi, instead of being tied to France by the
mild bonds of the faith, were now in a state which
the French called defection or revolt; that is, they
received and welcomed the English traders.
These traders came in part from Virginia, but
chiefly from Pennsylvania. Dinwiddle, governor of
Virginia, says of them: " They appear to me to be in
general a set of abandoned wretches ; " and Hamilton,
governor of Pennsylvania, replies: "I concur with
you in opinion that they are a very licentious
people."* Indian traders, of whatever nation, are
rarely models of virtue; and these, without doubt,
were rough and lawless men, with abundant black-
guardism and few scruples. Not all of them, how-
ever, are to be thus qualified. Some were of a better
stamp; among whom were Christopher Gist, William
Trent, and George Croghan. These and other chief
traders hired men on the frontiers, crossed the AUe-
ghanies with goods packed on the backs of horses,
descended into the valley of the Ohio, and journeyed
1 " De tontes les nations domicili^es dans les postes des pajs
d'en hant, il n*y a que les hurons du d^troit qui aient embrasse
1a B^ligion chretienne." — M€moire du Roy pour servir d*in$truction au
S^ Marguis de Lajonquihre,
' Dinwiddle to Hamilton, 21 May, 1753. Hamilton to Dinwiddie,'-^
May, 1763.
46 CBLORON DE BIENVILLE. [1749i
from stream to stream and village to village along
the Indian trails, with which aU this wUdemess was
seamed, and which the traders widened to make them
practicable. More rarely, they carried their goods
on horses to the upper waters of the Ohio, and em-
barked them in large wooden canoes, in which they
descended the main river, and ascended such of its
numerous tributaries as were navigable. They were
bold and enterprising; and French writers, witi. '
alarm and indignation, declare that some of them had
crossed the Mississippi and traded with the distant
Osages. It is said that about three hundred of them
came over the mountains every year.
On reaching the Alleghany, C^loron de Bienville
entered upon the work assigned him, and began by
taking possession of the country. The men were
drawn up in order; Louis XV. was proclaimed lord
of all that region, the arms of France, stamped on a
sheet of tin, were nailed to a tree, a plate of lead was
buried at its foot, and the notary of the expedition
drew up a formal act of the whole proceeding. The
leaden plate was inscribed as follows: "Year 1749,
in the reign of Louis Fifteenth, King of France.
We, Cdloron, commanding the detachment sent by
the Marquis de la Galissonidre, commander-general
of New France, to restore tranquillity in certain
villages of these cantons, have buried this plate at
the confluence of the Ohio and the Kanaouagon
[Conewango]^ this 29th July, as a token of renewal
of possession heretofore taken of the aforesaid River
17i9.] POSSESSION OF THE OmO. 47
Ohio, of all streams that fall into it, and all lands on
both sides to the source of the aforesaid streams, as
the preceding Kings of France have enjoyed or ought
to have enjoyed it, and which tbey have upheld by
force of arms and by treaties, notably by those of
Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix-la-Chapelle. "
This done, the party proceeded on its way, mov-
ing downward with the current, and passing from
time to time rough openings in the forest, with
clusters of Indian wigwams, the inmates of which
showed a strong inclination to run off at their
approach. To prevent this, Chabert de Joncaire was
sent in advance, as a messenger of peace. He was
himself half Indian, being the son of a French officer
and a Seneca squaw, speaking fluently his maternal
tongue, and, like his father, holding an important
place in all dealings between the French and the
tribes who spoke dialects of the Iroquois. On this
occasion his success was not complete. It needed
all his art to prevent the alarmed savages from tak-
ing to the woods. Sometimes, however, C^loron
succeeded in gaining an audience; and at a village
of Senecas called La Paille Couple he read them a
message from La Galissonidre couched in terms suffi-
ciently imperative : " My children, since I was at war
with the English, I have learned that they have
seduced you; and not content with corrupting your
hearts, have taken advantage of my absence to invade
lands which are not theirs, but mine; and therefore
I have resolved to send you Monsieur de C^loron to
48 C^eLORON DE BIENVILLE. [1749.
tell you my intentionfl, which are that I will not
endure the English on my land. Listen to me, chil-
dren; mark well the word that I send you; follow
my advice, and the sky will always be calm and clear
over your villages. I expect from you an answer
worthy of true children." And he urged them to
stop all trade with the intruders, and send them back
to whence they came. They promised compliance;
"and,"sa3rs the chaplain, Bonnecamp, "we should all
have been satisfied if we had thought them sincere ; but
nobody doubted that fear had extorted their answer."
Four leagues below French Creek, by a rock
scratched with Indian hieroglyphics, they buried
another leaden plate. Three days after, they reached
the Delaware village of Attiqud, at the site of
Kittanning, whose twenty-two wigwams were all
empty, the owners having fled. A little farther on,
at an old abandoned village of Shawanoes, they found
six English traders, whom they warned to begone,
and return no more at their peril. Being helpless to
resist, the traders pretended obedience; and C^loron
charged them with a letter to the governor of Penn-
sylvania, in which he declared that he was "greatly
surprised" to find Englishmen trespassing on the
domain of France. "I know," concluded the letter,
" that our Commandant-General would be very sorry
to be forced to use violence ; but his orders are pre-
cise, to leave no foreign traders within the limits of
his government."^
^ CAoron, Journal, Compare the letter as translated in N, Y
Col. Docs., vi. 632 ; also Colonial Records of Pa., t. 426.
1749.] LOGSTOWN. 49
On the next day they reached a village of Iroquois
under a female chief, called Queen Alequippa by
the English, to whom she was devoted. Both queen
and subjects had fled ; but among the deserted wig-
wams were six more Englishmen, whom C^loron
warned off like the others, and who, like them, pre-
tended to obey. At a neighboring town they found
only two withered ancients, male and female, whose
xuiited ages, in the judgment of the chaplain, were
full two centuries. They passed the site of the
future Pittsburg; and some seventeen miles below
approached Chiningu^, called Logstown by the Eng-
lish, one of the chief places on the river. ^ Both
English and French flags were flying over the town,
and the inhabitants, lining the shore, greeted their
visitors with a salute of musketry, — not wholly wel-
come, as the guns were charged with ball. Cdloron
threatened to fire on them if they did not cease. The
French climbed the steep bank, and encamped on the
plateau above, betwixt the forest and the village,
which consisted of some fifty cabins and wigwams,
grouped in picturesque squalor, and tenanted by a
mixed population, chiefly of Delawares, Shawanoes,
and Mingoes. Here, too, were gathered many fugi-
tives from the deserted towns above. C^loron feared
a night attack. The camp was encircled by a ring
of sentries ; the officers walked the rounds till morn-
ing ; a part of the men were kept under arms, and
^ There was another Chiningu^, the Shenango of the English, on
Ihe Alleghanj.
VOL. 1. — 4
50 CfiLORON DE BIENVILLE. [1749.
the rest ordered to sleep in their clothes. Joncaire
discovered through some women of his acquaintance
that an attack was intended. Whatever the danger
may have been, the precautions of the French averted
it; and instead of a battle, there was a council.
C^loron delivered to the assembled chiefs a message
from the governor more conciliatory than the former:
" Through the love I bear you, my children, I send
you Monsieur de C^loron to open your eyes to the
designs of the English against your lands. The
establishments they mean to make, and of which you
are certainly ignorant, tend to your complete ruin.
They hide from you their plans, which are to settle
here and drive you away, if I let them. As a good
father who tenderly loves his children, and though
far away from them bears them always in his heart,
I must warn you of the danger that threatens you.
The English intend to rob you of your country; and
that they may succeed, they begin by corrupting
your minds. As they mean to seize the Ohio, which
belongs to me, I send to warn them to retire."
The reply of the chiefs, though suflSciently humble,
was not all that could be wished. They begged that
the intruders might stay a little longer, since the
goods they brought were necessary to them. It was,
in fact, these goods, cheap, excellent, and abundant
as they were, which formed the only true bond
between the English and the western tribes. Logs-
town was one of the chief resorts of the English
traders ; and at this moment there were ten of them
1749.] CISLORON buries PLATES. 51
in the place. C^loron warned them off. "They
agreed," says the chaplain, "to all that was demanded,
well resolved, no doubt, to do the contrary as soon
as our backs were turned."
Having distributed gifts among the Indians, the
French proceeded on their way, and at or near the
mouth of Wheeling Creek buried another plate of
lead. They repeated the same ceremony at the
mouth of the Muskingum. Here, half a century
later, when this region belonged to the United States,
a party of boys, bathing in the river, saw the plate
protruding from the bank where the freshets had laid
it bare, knocked it down with a long stick, melted
half of it into bullets, and gave what remained to a
neighbor from Marietta, who, hearing of this myste-
rious relic, inscribed in an unknown tongue, came to
rescue it from their hands. ^ It is now in the
cabinet of the American Antiquarian Society.^ On
the eighteenth of August, C^loron buried yet an-
other plate, at the mouth of the Great Kanawha.
This, too, in the course of a century, was unearthed
by the floods, and was found in 1846 by a boy at
play, by the edge of the water. ^ The inscriptions
on all these plates were much alike, with variations
of date and place.
1 O. H. MarahaU, in Magazine of American History, March, 1878.
* For papers relating to it, see Trans. Amer, Antiq, Sac., ii.
* For a facsimile of the inscription on this plate, see Olden
rime, i. 288. C^loron calls the Kanawha, Chinodahiehetha. The
inscriptions as £^yen in his Journal correspond with those on the
plates discovered.
62 CiLORON DE BIENVILLE. [1749.
The weather was by turns rainy and hot; and the
men, tired and famished, were fast falling ilL On
the twenty-second they approached Scioto, called by
the French St. Yotoc, or Sinioto, a large Shawanoe
town at the mouth of the river which bears the same
name. Greatly doubting what welcome awaited
them, they filled their powder-horns and prepared for
the worst. Joncaire was sent forward to propitiate
the inhabitants; but they shot bullets through the
flag that he carried, and surrounded him, yelling and
brandishing their knives. Some were for killing him
at once; others for burning him alive. The inter-
position of a friendly Iroquois saved him; and at
length they let him go. Cfloron was very uneasy at
the reception of his messenger. "I knew," he
writes, "the weakness of my party, two-thirds of
which were young men who had never left home
before, and would all have run at the sight of ten
Indians. Still, there was nothing for me but to keep
on; for I was short of provisions, my canoes were
badly damaged, and I had no pitch or bark to mend
them. So I embarked again, ready for whatever
might happen. I had good ofiBcers, and about fifty
men who could be trusted."
As they neared the town, the Indians swarmed to
the shore, and began the usual salute of musketry.
"They fired," says C^loron, " full a thousand shots;
for the English give them powder for nothing." He
prudently pitched his camp on the farther side of the
river, posted guards, and kept close watch. Each
174a] ASCENT OF THE MIAML 68
party distrusted and feared the other. At length,
after much ado, many debates, and some threatening
movements on the part of the alarmed and excited
Indians, a council took place at the tent of the
French commander; the chiefs apologized for the
rough treatment of Joncaire, and C^loron replied
with a rebuke, which would doubtless have been
less mild, had he felt himself stronger. X ^^ g^y^
them also a message from the governor, modified,
apparently, to suit the circumstances; for while
warning them of the wiles of the English, it gave
no hint that the King of France claimed mastery of
their lands. Their answer was vague and unsat-
is&ctory. It was plain that they were bound to the
enemy by interest, if not by sympathy. A party
of English traders were living in the place; and
C^loron summoned them to withdraw, on pain of
what might ensue. "My instructions," he says,
"enjoined me to do this, and even to pillage the
English; but I was not strong enough; and as
these traders were established in the village and
well supported by the Indians, the attempt would
have failed, and put the French to shame.'* The
assembled chiefs having been regaled with a cup
of brandy each, — the only part of the proceeding
which seemed to please them, — C^loron re-embarked,
and continued his voyage.
On the thirtieth they reached the Great Miami,
called by the French, Rivifere h. la Roche ; and here
C^loron buried the last of his leaden plates. They
54 C^ORON DE BIENVILLE. [1749.
now bade farewell to the Ohio, or, in the words of
the chaplain, to " La Belle Rivifere, — that river so
little known to the French, and unfortunately too
well known to the English." He speaks of the multi-
tude of Indian villages on its shores, and still more
on its northern branches. ^'Each, great or small,
has one or more English traders, and each of these
has hired men to carry his furs. Behold, then, the
English well advanced upon our lands, and, what is
worse, under the protection of a crowd of savages
whom they have drawn over to them, and whose
number increases daily."
The course of the party lay up the Miami; and
they toiled thirteen days against the shallow current
before they reached a village of the Miami Indians,
lately built at the mouth of the rivulet now called
Loramie Creek. Over it ruled a chief to whom the
French had given the singular name of La Demoiselle,
but whom the English, whose fast friend he was,
called Old Britain. The English traders who lived
here had prudently withdrawn, leaving only two
hired men in the place. The object of C^loron was
to induce the Demoiselle and his band to leave this
new abode and return to their old villages near the
French fort on the Maumee, where they would be
safe from English seduction. To this end, he called
them to a council, gave them ample gifts, and made
them an harangue in the name of the governor. The
Demoiselle took the gifts, thanked his French father
for his good advice, and promised to follow it at a
1740.] LA DEMOISELLE. 55
more convenient time.^ In vain C^oron insisted
that he and his tribesmen should remove at once.
Neither blandishments nor threats would prevail,
and the French commander felt that his negotiation
had failed.
He was not deceived. Far from leaving his
village, the Demoiselle, who was Great Chief of the
Miami Confederacy, gathered his followers to the
spot, till, less than two years after the visit of
C^loron, its population had increased eightfold.
Pique Town, or Pickawillany, as the English called
it, became one of the greatest Indian towns of the
West, the centre of English trade and influence,
and a capital object of French jealousy.
C^loron burned his shattered canoes, and led his
party across the long and difficult portage to the
French post on the Maumee, where he found Ray-
mond, the commander, and all his men, shivering
with fever and ague. They suppUed him with
wooden canoes for his voyage down the river; and,
early in October, he reached Lake Erie, where he
was detained for a time by a drunken debauch of his
Indians, who are called by the chaplain ^^a species
of men made to exercise the patience of those who
have the misfortune to travel with them." In a
month more he was at Fort Frontenac; and as he
descended thence to Montreal, he stopped at the
^ C^oron, Journal. Compare A Message from the Twightioees
MimmiB) in Colonial Records of Pa., y. 437, where thej saj that
they refused the gifts.
\
66 CfiLORON DE BIENVILLE. [1749.
Oswegatchie, in obedience to the governor, who had
directed him to report the progress made by the
Sulpitian, Abb^ Piquet, at his new mission. Piquet's
new fort had been burned by Indians, prompted, as
he thought, by the English of Oswego; but the
priest, buoyant and undaunted, was still resolute for
the glory of God and the confusion of the heretics.
At length C^loron reached Montreal ; and, closing
his Journal, wrote thus: "Father Bonnecamp, who
is a Jesuit and a great mathematician, reckons that
we have travelled twelve hundred leagues ; I and my
officers think we have travelled more. All I can say
is, that the nations of these countries are very ill-
disposed towards the French, and devoted entirely to
the English."^ If his expedition had done no more,
it had at least revealed clearly the deplorable con-
dition of French interests in the West.
While C^loron was warning English traders from
the Ohio, a plan was on foot in Virginia for a new
invasion of the French domain. An association was
formed to settle the Ohio country; and a grant of
five hundred thousand acres was procured from the
King, on condition that a hundred families should be
established upon it within seven years, a fort built,
and a garrison maintained. The Ohio Company
1 Journal de la Campagne que moy C^loron, Chevalier de VOrdre
Royal et Militaire de St. Louis, Capitaine Commandant un d€tache-
ment envoys dans la Belle Riviere par les ordres de M, le Marquis de
La Galissoniere, etc.
Relation d'un voyage dans la BelU Rivihre sous les ordres de M. de
C/loron, par le Pere Bonnecamp, en 1749.
1750.] THE OHIO COMPANY. 67
numbered among its members some of the chief men
of Virginia, including two brothers of Washington;
and it had also a London partner, one Hanbury, a
person of influence, who acted as its agent in Eng-
land. In the year after the expedition of C^loron,
its governing committee sent the trader Christopher
Gist to explore the country and select land. It
must be "good level land," wrote the committee;
**we had rather go quite down to the Mississippi
than take mean, broken land."^ In November Gist
reached Logstown, the Chiningu^ of C^loron, where
he found what he calls a " parcel of reprobate Indian
traders." Those whom he so stigmatizes were
Pennsylvanians, chiefly Scotch-Irish, between whom
and the traders from Virginia there was great
jealousy. Gist was told that he "should never go
home safe." He declared himself the bearer of a
message from the King. This imposed respect, and
he was allowed to proceed. At the Wyandot village
of Muskingum he found the trader George Croghan,
sent to the Indians by the governor of Pennsylvania,
to renew the chain of friendship.^ "Croghan," he
says, "is a mere idol among his countrymen, the
Irish traders ; " yet they met amicably, and the Penn-
sylvanian had with him a companion, Andrew
Montour, the interpreter, who proved of great service
1 InstmctionB to Gist, in appendix to Fownall, Topographical
Description of North America.
* Mr. Croghan*8 Transactions with the Indians, in N, Y. Col, Docs^
rii. 267 ; Croghan to Hamilton, 16 December, 1760.
68 CfiLORON DE BIENVILLE. [1750.
to Gist. As Montour was a conspicuous person in
his time, and a type of his class, he merits a passing
notice. He was the reputed grandson of a French
governor and an Indian squaw. His half-breed
mother, Catharine Montour, was a native of Canada,
whence she was carried off by the Iroquois, and
adopted by them. She lived in a village at the head
of Seneca Lake, and still held the belief, inculcated
by the guides of her youth, that Christ was a
Frenchman crucified by the English.^ Her son
Andrew is thus described by the Moravian Zinzendorf,
who knew him : " His face is like that of a European,
but marked with a broad Indian ring of bear's-grease
and paint drawn completely round it. He wears a
coat of fine cloth of cinnamon color, a black necktie
with silver spangles, a red satin waistcoat, trousers
over which hangs his shirt, shoes and stockings, a
hat, and brass ornaments, something like the handle
of a basket, suspended from his ears."^ He was an
excellent interpreter, and held in high account by
his Indian kinsmen.
After leaving Muskingum, Gist, Croghan, and
Montour went together to a village on White
Woman's Creek, — so called from one Mary Harris,
^ This is stated bj Count Zinzendorf, who visited her among the
Senecas. Compare " Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV.,"
806, In a plan of the " Route of the Western Army," made in
1779, and of which a tracing is before me, the village where she
Uved is still called " French Catharine's Town."
" Journal of Zinzendorf, quoted in Schweinitz, Life of David
Zeisberger, 112, note.
1750, 1751.] PICKAWILLANY. 69
who lived here. She was bom in New England,
was made prisoner when a child forty years before,
and had since dwelt among her captors, finding sueli
comfort as she might in an Indian husband and a
family of young half-breeds. "She still remembers,"
s&js Gist, "that they used to be very religious in
New England, and wonders how white men can be
so wicked as she has seen them in these woods." He
and his companions now journeyed southwestward to
the Shawanoe town at the mouth of the Scioto, where
they found a reception very different from that which
had awaited C^loron. Thence they rode northwest-
ward along the forest path that led to Pickawillany,
the Indian town on the upper waters of the Great
Miami. Gist was delighted with the country, and
reported to his employers that " it is fine, rich, level
land, well timbered with large walnut, ash, sugar
trees and cheny trees; well watered with a great
number of little streams and rivulets ; full of beauti-
ful natural meadows, with wild rye, blue-grass, and
clover, and abounding with turkeys, deer, elks, and
most sorts of game, particularly buffaloes, thirty or
forty of which are frequently seen in one meadow."
A little farther west, on the plains of the Wabash
and the Illinois, he would have found them by
thousands.
They crossed the Miami on a raft, their horses
swimming after them ; and were met on landing by
a crowd of warriors, who, after smoking with them,
escorted them to the neighboring town, where they
60 C^LORON DE BIENVILLE. [175L
were greeted by a fusillade of welcome. "We en-
tered with English colors before us, and were kindly
received by their king, who invited us into his own
house and set our colors upon the top of it; then all
the white men and traders that were there came and
welcomed us." This "king" was Old Britain, or La
Demoiselle. Great were tlie changes here since
C^loron, a year and a half before, had vainly enticed
him to change his abode, and dwell in the shadow of
the fleur-de-lis. The town had grown to four hun-
dred families, or about two thousand souls ; and the
English traders had built for themselves and their
hosts a fort of pickets, strengthened with logs.
There was a series of councils in the long house,
or town-hall. Croghan made the Indians a present
from the governor of Pennsylvania; and he and
Gist delivered speeches of friendship and good advice,
which the auditors received with the usual monosyl-
labic plaudits, ejected from the depths of their
throats. A treaty of peace was solemnly made
between the English and the confederate tribes, and
all was serenity and joy; till four Ottawas, probably
from Detroit, arrived with a French flag, a gift of
brandy and tobacco* and a message from the French
commandant inviting the Miamis to visit him.
Whereupon the great war-chief rose, and, with "a
fierce tone and very warlike air," said to the envoys:
"Brothers the Ottawas, we let you know, by these
four strings of wampum, that we will not hear any-
thing the French say, nor do anything they bid us."
1761.] MIAMIS AND ENGLISH. 61
Then addressing the French as if actually present:
•* Fathers, we have made a road to the sun-rising, and
have been taken by the hand by our brothers the
English, the Six Nations, the Delawares, Shawanoes,
and Wyandots.^ We assure you, in that road we
will go; and as you threaten us with war in the
spring, we tell you that we are ready to receive you."
Then, turning again to the four envoys: "Brothers
the Ottawas, you hear what I say. Tell that to your
fathers the French, for we speak it from our hearts."
The chiefs then took down the French flag which
the Ottawas had planted in the town, and dismissed
the envoys with their answer of defiance.
On the next day the town-crier came with a mes-
sage from the Demoiselle, inviting his English guests
to a "feather dance," which Gist thus describes: "It
was performed by three dancing-masters, who were
painted all over of various colors, with long sticks in
their hands, upon the ends of which were fastened
long feathers of swans and other birds, neatly woven
in the shape of a fowl's wing ; in this disguise they
performed many antic tricks, waving their sticks and
feathers about with great skill, to imitate the flying
and fluttering of birds, keeping exact time with their
music." This music was the measured thumping of
an Indian drum. From time to time a warrior would
leap up, and the drum and the dancers would cease
1 Compare Message of Miamis and Hurons to the Governor oj
Pennsylvania in N. Y. Col. Docs., vi. 594 ; and Report of Croghan in
Colonial Records of Pa., y. 522, 523.
62 CiLORON DE BIENVILLE. [1761.
as he struck a post with his tomahawk, and in a loud
voice recounted his exploits. Then the music and
the dance began anew, till another warrior caught
the martial fire, and bounded into the circle to bran-
dish his tomahawk and vaunt his prowess.
On the first of March Gist took leave of Pickawil-
lany, and returned towards the Ohio. He would
have gone to the Falls, where Louisville now stands,
but for a band of French Indians reported to be
there, who would probably have killed him. After
visiting a deposit of mammoth bones on the south
shore, long the wonder of the traders, he turned
eastward, crossed with toil and diflSculty the moim-
tains about the sources of the Kanawha, and after an
absence of seven months reached his frontier home
on the Yadkin, whence he proceeded to Roanoke
with the report of his journey.^
All looked well for the English in the West; but
under this fair outside lurked hidden danger. The
Miamis were hearty in the English cause, and so
perhaps were the Shawanoes ; but the Delawares had
not forgotten the wrongs that drove them from their
old abodes east of the AUeghanies, while the Mingoes,
or emigrant Iroquois, like their brethren of New
York, felt the influence of Joncaire and other French
agents, who spared no efforts to seduce them.^ Still
1 Journal of Christopher Gist, in appendix to Fownall, Topographi-
cal Description. Mr. Croghan*s Transactions with the Indians in
N. r. Col. Docs., yii. 267.
^ Joncaire made anti-Engliah speeches to the Ohio Indians
1750-1762.] ENGLISH APATHY. 68
more baneful to British interests were the apathy and
dissensions of the British colonies themselves. The
Ohio Company had built a trading-house at Will*s
Creek, a branch of the Potomac, to which the Indians
resorted in great numbers; whereupon the jealous
traders of Pennsylvania told them that the Virginians
meant to steal away their lands. This confirmed
what they had been taught by the French emissaries,
whose intrigues it powerfully aided. The governors
of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia saw the
importance of Indian alliances, and felt their own
responsibility in regard to them ; but they could do
nothing without their assemblies. Those of New
York and Pennsylvania were largely composed of
tradesmen and farmers, absorbed in local interests,
and possessed by two motives, — the saving of the
people's money, and opposition to the governor, who
stood for the royal prerogative. It was Hamilton,
of Pennsylvania, who had sent Croghan to the
Miamis to "renew the chain of friendship;" and
when the envoy returned, the Assembly rejected his
report "I was condemned," he says, "for bringing
expense on the Government, and the Indians were
neglected." ^ In the same year Hamilton again sent
him over the mountains, with a present for the
Mingoes and Delawares. Croghan succeeded in
under the eyes of the English themselyes, who did not molest him.
Journal of George Croghan, 1761, in Olden Time, i. 136.
^ Mr. Croghan's Tramactiom with the Indians, N. Y, Col, Docs,,
TiL967.
64 C^LORON DE BIENVILLE. [175(^1752.
persuading them that it would be for their good if
the English should build a fortified trading-house at
the fork of the Ohio, where Pittsburg now stands;
and they made a formal request to the governor that
it should be built accordingly. But, in the words of
Croghan, the Assembly "rejected the proposal, and
condemned me for making such a report." Yet this
post on the Ohio was vital to English interests.
Even the Penns, proprietaries of the province, never
lavish of their money, offered four hundred pounds
towards the cost of it, besides a hundred a year
towards its maintenance; but the Assembly would
not listen.^ The Indians were so well convinced
that a strong English trading-station in their country
would add to their safety and comfort, that when
Pennsylvania refused it, they repeated the proposal
to Virginia; but here, too, it found for the present
little favor.
The question of disputed boundaries had much to
do with this most impolitic inaction. A large part
of the valley of the Ohio, including the site of the
proposed establishment, was claimed by both Penn-
sylvania and Virginia ; and each feared that whatever
money it might spend there would turn to the profit
1 Colonial Records of Pa., v. 616, 529, 647. At a council at Logs-
town (1751), the Indians said to Croghan: "The French want to
cheat us out of our country ; but we will stop them, and. Brothers
the English, jou must help us. We expect that you will build a
strong house on the River Ohio, that in case of war we may have a
place to secure our wives and children, likewise our brothers that
come to trade with us." — Report of Treaty at Logstown,lbid., v. 638,
1750-1752.] ENGLISH APATHY. 65
of the other. This was not the only evil that sprang
from uncertain ownership. "Till the line is run
between the two provinces," says Dinwiddle, gov-
ernor of Virginia, "I cannot appoint magistrates to
keep the traders in good order. "^ Hence they did
what they pleased, and often gave umbrage to the
Indians. Clinton, of New York, appealed to his
Assembly for means to assist Pennsylvania in " secur-
ing the fidelity of the Indians on the Ohio," and the
Assembly refused.^ "We will take care of our
Indians, and they may take care of theirs : " such was
the spirit of their answer. He wrote to the various
provinces, inviting them to send commissioners to
meet the tribes at Albany, "in order to defeat the
designs and intrigues of the French." All turned
a deaf ear except Massachusetts, Connecticut, and
South Carolina, who sent the commissioners, but
supplied them very meagrely with the indispensable
presents.' Clinton says further: "The Assembly of
this province have not given one farthing for Indian
affairs, nor for a year past have they provided for
the subsistence of the garrison at Oswego, which
is the key for the commerce between the colonies
and the inland nations of Indians."^
In the heterogeneous structure of the British
1 Dinwiddle to the Lards of Trade, 6 October, 1752.
« Journals of New York Assembly, ii. 283,: 284. Colonial Records
of Pa., y. 466.
• Clinton to Hamilton, 18 December, 1750. Clinton to Lords of
Trade, 13 June, 1751 ; Ibid., 17 July, 175L
« Clinton to Bedford, 30 July, 1750.
TOL. I. — 5
66 CfiLORON DE BIENVILLE. [1750-1752.
colonies, their clashing interests, their internal dis-
putes, and the misplaced economy of penny-wise and
shortnsighted assembly-men, lay the hope of France.
The rulers of Canada knew the vast numerical pre-
ponderance of their rivals; but with their centralized
organization they felt themselves more than a match
for any one English colony alone. They hoped to
wage war under the guise of peace, and to deal with
the enemy in detail; and they at length perceived
that the fork of the Ohio, so strangely neglected by
the English, formed, together with Niagara, the key
of the Great West. Could France hold firmly these
two controlling passes, she might almost boast herself
mistress of the continent.
NoTB. — The Journal of C^oron ( Archives de la Marine) is very
long and circumstantial, including the proces verbaux, and reports
of councils with Indians. The Journal of the chaplain, Bonne-
camp '{IMpdt de la Marine), is shorter, but is the work of an intelli-
gent and obserring man. The author, a Jesuit, was skilled in
mathematics, made daily observations, and constructed a map of
the route, still preserved at the IMpdt de la Marine. Concurrently
with these French narratives, one may consult the English letters
and documents bearing on the same subjects, in the Colonial
Records of Pennsylvania, the Archives of Pennsylvania, and the
Colonial Documents of New York.
Three of C^oron's leaden plates have been found, — the two
mentioned in the text, and another which was never buried, and
which the Indians, who regarded these mysterious tablets as " bad
medicine," procured by a trick from Joncaire, or, according to
Governor Clinton, stole from him. A Cayuga chief brought it to
Colonel Johnson on the Mohawk, who interpreted the " Devilish
writing " in such a manner aa best to inspire horror of French
designi.
CHAPTER m.
1749-1753.
CONFLICT FOR THE WEST.
Thx Fits Nations. — Cauohitawaoa. — Asst Piquet : ma
SCHBMES ; HIS JOUHHET. — FORT FbONTBNAG. — TORONTO. —
Niagara. — Osweoo.— Success of Piquet. — Detroit. — La
JoHQUi^RE : his Iktrioues ; HIS Trials ; his Death. —
English Intrigues. — Critical State of the West. — Pick-
AWILLANT destroyed. — DuQUESNE : HIS GrAND ENTERPRISE.
The Iroquois, or Five Nations, sometimes called
Six Nations after the Tuscaroras joined them, had
been a power of high importance in American inter-
national politics. In a certain sense they may be
said to have held the balance between their French
and English neighbors; but their relative influence
had of late declined. So many of them had emi-
grated and joined the tribes of the Ohio, that the
centre of Indian population had passed to that region.
Nevertheless, the Five Nations were still strong
enough in their ancient abodes to make their alliance
an object of the utmost consequence to both the
European rivals. At the western end of their '^ Long
House," or belt of confederated villages, Joncaire
intrigued to gain them for France ; while in the east
he was counteracted by the young colonel of militia.
68 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1749-1753.
William Johnson, who lived on the Mohawk, and
was already well skilled in managing Indians.
Johnson sometimes lost his temper; and once wrote
to Governor Clinton to complain of the " confounded
wicked things the French had infused into the Indians'
heads ; among the rest that the English were deter-
mined, the first opportunity, to destroy them all. I
assure your Excellency I had hard work to beat these
and several other cursed villanous things, told them
by the French, out of their heads." ^
In former times the French had hoped to win over
the Five Nations in a body, by wholesale conversion
to the Faith ; but the attempt had failed. They had,
however, made within their own limits an asylum for
such converts as they could gain, whom they collected
together at Caughnawaga, near Montreal, to the
number of about three hundred warriors.^ These
could not be trusted to fight their kinsmen, but
willingly made forays against the English borders.
Caughnawaga, like various other Canadian missions,
was divided between the Church, the army, and the
fur-trade. It had a chapel, fortifications, and store-
houses; two Jesuits, an officer, and three chief
traders. Of these last, two were maiden ladies, the
Demoiselles Desauniers ; and one of the Jesuits, their
friend Father Toumois, was their partner in busi-
ness. They carried on by means of the Mission
1 Johnson to Clinton, 28 April, 1740.
' The estimate of a French official report, 1736, and of Sir
William Johnson, 1763.
174»-176a.] PIQUET. 69
Indians, and in collusion with iniSuential persons in
the colony, a trade with the Dutch at Albany, illegal,
but veiy profitable.^
Besides this Iroquois mission, which was chiefly
composed of Mohawks and Oneidas, another was
now begun farther westward, to win over the Onon-
dagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. This was the estab-
lishment of Father Piquet, which C^loron had visited
in its infancy when on his way to the Ohio, and
again on his return. Piquet was a man in the prime
of life, of an alert, vivacious countenance, by no
means unprepossessing;^ an enthusiastic schemer,
with great executive talents ; ardent, energetic, vain,
self-confident, and boastful. The enterprise seems
to have been of his own devising ; but it found warm
approval from the government.^ La Presentation,
as he called the new mission, stood on the bank of
the river Oswegatchie where it enters the St.
Lawrence. Here the rapids ceased, and navigation
was free to Lake Ontario. The place commanded
the main river, and could bar the way to hostile war-
parties or contraband traders. Rich meadows, forests,
and abundance of fish and game, made it attractive
* La Jonquiere au Mtntstre, 27 F^vrier, 1760. Ibid., 29 Octobre,
1761. Ordres du Roy tt D€piches des MinistreSf 1761. Notice bio-
yrapkique de La Jonquihre, La Jonquiere, governor of Canada, at
last broke up their contraband trade, and ordered Toumois to
Quebec.
* I once taw a contemporary portrait of him at the mission of
Two Mountains, where he had been stationed.
* RouilU a La Jonquih'e, 1749. I1ie intendant Bigot gave him
money and proTisions. N. Y. Col. Docs., z. 204.
70 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1740-1768.
to Indians, and the Oswegatchie gave access to the
Iroquois towns. Piquet had chosen his site with
great skill. His activity was admirable. His first
stockade was burned by Indian incendiaries; but it
rose quickly from its ashes, and within a year or two
the mission of La Presentation had a fort of palisades
flanked with blockhouses, a chapel, a storehouse, a
bam, a stable, ovens, a saw-mill, broad fields of com
and beans, and three villages of Iroquois, containing,
in all, forty-nine bark lodges, each holding three or
four families, more or less converted to the Faith;
and, as time went on, this number increased. The
governor had sent a squad of soldiers to man the
fort, and five small cannon to mount upon it. The
place was as safe for the new proselytes as it was
convenient and agreeable. The Pennsylvanian inter-
preter, Conrad Weiser, was told at Onondaga, the
Iroquois capital, that Piquet had made a himdred
converts from that place alone; and that, ^^ having
clothed them all in veiy fine clothes, laced with
silver and gold, he took them down and presented
them to the French governor at Montreal, who re-
ceived them veiy kindly, and made them large
presents." ^
Such were some of the temporal attractions of La
Pr^entation. The nature of the spiritual instruc-
tion bestowed by Piquet and his fellow-priests may
be partly inferred from the words of a proselyte
warrior, who declared with enthusiasm that he had
^ J<ntmal of Conrad Weiser, 1750.
1740^1753.] BOASTS OF PIQUET. 71
learned from the Sulpitian missionaiy that the King
of France was the eldest son of the wife of Jesus
Christ.^ This he of course took in a literal sense,
the mystic idea of the Church as the spouse of Christ
being beyond his savage comprehension. The effect
was to stimulate his devotion to the Great Onontio
beyond the sea, and to the lesser Onontio who repre-
sented him as governor of Canada.
Piquet was elated by his success; and early in
1752 he wrote to the governor and intendant: "It is
a great miracle that, in spite of envy, contradiction,
and opposition from nearly all the Indian villages, I
have formed in less than three years one of the most
flourishing missions in Canada. I find m3n9elf in a
position to extend the empire of my good masters,
Jesus Christ and the King, even to the extremities
of this new world; and, with some little help from
you, to do more than France and England have been
able to do with millions of money and all their
troops. "2
The letter from which this is taken was written to
urge upon the government a scheme in which the
zealous priest could see nothing impracticable. He
proposed to raise a war-party of thirty-eight hundred
^ Lalande, Notice de PAhh€ Piquet, in Lettres ^difiantes. See
also TzMi in JUvue Canadienne, 1870, p. 0.
* Piquet d La Jonquikre et Bigot^ 8 Ffvrier, 1752. See Appendix
A. In spite of Piquet's self-laudation, and in spite also of the
detraction of the author of the M€moires sur le Canada, 1749-1760,
there can be no doubt of his practical capacity and his fertility of
resource. Duquesne, when governor of the colony, highly praises
" ses talents tt son actiyittf pour le service de Sa Majesttf."
72 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1751.
Indians, eighteen hundred of whom were to be drawn
from the Canadian missions, the Five Nations, and
the tribes of the Ohio, while the remaining two
thousand were to be furnished by the Flatheads, or
Choctaws, who were at the same time to be supplied
with missionaries. The united force was first to
drive the English from the Ohio, and next attack
the Dog Tribe, or Cherokees, who lived near the
borders of Virginia, with the people of which they
were on friendly terms. "If," says Piquet, "the
English of Virginia give any help to this last-named
tribe, — which will not fail to happen, — they [the
war-party] will do their utmost against them, through
a grudge they bear them by reason of some old
quarrels." In other words, the missionary hopes to
set a host of savages to butchering English settlers
in time of peace !^ His wild project never took
efifect, though the governor, he says, at first approved
it.
In the preceding year the " Apostle of the Iroquois, "
as he was called, made a journey to muster recruits
for his mission, and kept a copious diary on the way.
By accompanying him, one gets a clear view of an
important part of the region in dispute between the
rival nations. Six Canadians paddled him up the
St. Lawrence, and five Indian converts followed in
another canoe. Emerging from among the Thousand
Islands, they stopped at Fort Frontenac, where
Kingston now stands. Once the place was a great
^ Appendix A.
175L] PIQUET AT TORONTO. 78
resort of Indians; now none were here, for the Eng-
lish post of Oswego, on the other side of the lake,
had greater attractions. Piquet and his oompany
fonnd the pork and bacon yeiy bad, and he com-
plains that ^ there was not brandy enough in the fort
to wash a wound." They crossed to a neighboring
island, where they were soon yisited by the chaplain
of the fort, the storekeeper, his wife, and three
young ladies, glad of an excursion to relieve the
monotony of the garrison. "My hunters," says
Piquet, "had supplied me with means of giving
them a pretty good entertainment. We drank, with
all our hearts, the health of the authorities, temporal
and ecclesiastical, to the sound of our musketry,
which was veiy well fired, and delighted the islanders."
These islanders were a band of Indians who lived
here. Piquet gave them a feast, then discoursed of
religion, and at last persuaded them to remove to
the new mission.
During eight days he and his party coasted the
northern shore of Lake Ontario, with various inci-
dents, such as an encounter between his dog Cerberus
and a wolf, to the disadvantage of the latter, and the
meeting with "a veiy fine negro of twenty-two years,
a fugitive from Virginia." On the twenty-sixth of
June they reached the new fort of Toronto, which
offered a striking contrast to their last stopping-
place. "The wine here is of the best; there is noth-
ing wanting in this fort; everything is abundant,
fine, and good." There was reason for this. The
74 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1751.
nortihem Indians were flocking with their beaver^
skins to the English of Oswego; and in April, 1749,
an oflBcer named Portneuf had been sent with soldiers
and workmen to build a stockaded trading-house at
Toronto, in order to intercept them, — not by force,
which would have been ruinous to French interests,
but by a tempting supply of goods and brandy.^
Thus the fort was kept well stocked, and with excel-
lent effect. Piquet found here a band of Mississagas,
who would otherwise, no doubt, have carried their
furs to the English. He was strongly impelled to
persuade them to migrate to La Presentation; but
the governor had told him to confine his efforts to
other tribes ; and lest, he says, the ardor of his zeal
should betray him to disobedience, he re-embarked,
and encamped six leagues from temptation.
Two days more brought him to Niagara, where he
was warmly received by the commandant, the chap-
lain, and the storekeeper, — the triumvirate who
ruled these forest outposts, and stood respectively for
their three vital principles, war, religion, and trade.
Here Piquet said mass ; and after resting a day, set
out for the trading-house at the portage of the cata-
ract, recently built, like Toronto, to stop the Indians
on their way to Oswego.' Here he found Joncaire,
and here also was encamped a large band of Senecas ;
^ On Toronto, La Jonquikre et Bigot au Ministry, 1740. Za Jen*
quih-e au Minittre, 80 Ao&t, 1750. N. Y, Col, Docs., x. 201, 246.
* La Jonquiere au Ministre, 23 F€vr\er, 1750. Ihid,, 6 Octobre, 1751-
Compare Colonial Records of Pa., v. 508.
175L] PIQUET AT NIAGARA. 76
tiiough, being all drunk, men, women, and children,
ihey were in no condition to receive the Faith, or
appreciate the temporal advantages that attended it.
On the next morning, finding them partially sober,
be invited them to remove to La Pr&entation; "but
as they had still something left in their bottles, I
could get no answer till the following day." "I
pass in silence," pursues the missionary, "an infinity
of talks on this occasion. Monsieur de Joncaire for-
got nothing that could help me, and behaved like a
great servant of God and the King. My recruits
increased every moment. I went to say my breviaiy
while my Indians and the Senecas, without loss of
time, assembled to hold a council with Monsieur de
Joncaire." The result of the council was an entreaty
to the missionary not to stop at Oswego, lest evil
should befall him at the hands of the English. He
promised to do as they wished, and presently set out
on his return to Fort Niagara, attended by Joncaire
and a troop of his new followers. The journey was
a triumphal progress. " Whenever we passed a camp
or a wigwam, the Indians saluted me by firing their
guns, which happened so often that I thought all the
trees along the way were charged with gunpowder;
and when we reached the fort, Monsieur de Becan-
cour received us with great ceremony and the firing
of cannon, by which my savages were infinitely
flattered."
His neophytes were gathered into the chapel for
the first time in their lives, and there rewarded with
76 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [176L
a few presents. He now prepared to turn homeward,
his flock at the mission being left in his absence
without a shepherd; and on the sixth of July he
embarked, followed by a swarm of canoes. On the
twelfth they stopped at the Genesee, and went to
visit the Falls, where the city of Rochester now
stands. On the way, the Indians found a populous
resort of rattlesnakes, and attacked the gregarious
reptiles with great animation, to the alarm of the
missionary, who trembled for his bare-legged retainers.
His fears proved needless. Forty-two dead snakes,
as he avers, requited the efforts of the sportsmen,
and not one of them was bitten. When he returned
to camp in the afternoon he found there a canoe
loaded with kegs of brandy. "The English," he
says, "had sent it to meet us, well knowing that this
was the best way to cause disorder among my new
recruits and make them desert me. The Indian in
charge of the canoe, who had the look of a great
rascal, offered some to me first, and then to my
Canadians and Indians. I gave out that it was very
probably poisoned, and immediately embarked again."
He encamped on the fourteenth at Sodus Bay, and
strongly advises Ihe planting of a French fort there.
"Nevertheless," he adds, "it would be still better to
destroy Oswego, and on no account let the English
build it again." On the sixteenth he came in sight
of this dreaded post. Several times on the way he
had met fleets of canoes going thither or returning,
in spite of the rival attractions of Toronto and
1751.] PIQUET AT OSWEGO. 77
Niagara. No English establishment on the conti-
nent was of such ill omen to the French. It not only
robbed them of the fur-trade, by which they lived,
bat threatened them with military and political, no
less than commercial, ruin. They were in constant
dread lest ships of war should be built here, strong
enough to command Lake Ontario, thus separating
Canada from Louisiana, and cutting New France
asunder. To meet this danger, they soon after built
at Fort Frontenac a large three-masted vessel,
mounted with heavy cannon; thus, as usual, fore-
stalling their rivals by promptness of action.^ The
ground on which Oswego stood was claimed by the
Province of New York, which alone had control of it;
but through the purblind apathy of the Assembly,
and their incessant quarrels with the governor, it
was commonly left to take care of itself. For some
time they would vote no money to pay the feeble
little garrison; and Clinton, who saw the necessity
of maintaining it, was forced to do so on his own
personal credit.* "Why can't your governor and
your great men [the Assembli/] agree?" asked a
Mohawk chief of the interpreter, Conrad Weiser.^
Piquet kept his promise not to land at the English
fort; but he approached in his canoe, and closely
observed it. The shores, now covered by the city of
Oswego, were then a desolation of bare hills and
1 Lieutenant Lindesay to Johnson, Jtdy, 1751.
* Clinton to Lords of Trade, 30 Jultf, 1760.
• Journal of Conrad Weiser, 1750.
78 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [176L
fields, studded with the stumps of felled trees, and
hedged about with a grim border of forests. Near
the strand, by the mouth of the Onondaga, were the
houses of some of the traders; and on the higher
ground behind them stood a huge blockhouse with
a projecting upper stoiy. This building was sur-
rounded by a rough wall of stone, with flankers
at the angles, forming what was called the fort.^
Piquet reconnoitred it from his canoe with the eye
of a soldier. "It is commanded," he sa3n3, "on
almost every side; two batteries, of three twelve-
pounders each, would be more than enough to reduce
it to ashes." And he enlarges on the evils that arise
from it. " It not only spoils our trade, but puts the
English into communication with a vast number of
our Indians, far and near. It is true that they like
our brandy better than English rum ; but they prefer
English goods to ours, and can buy for two beaver-
skins at Odwego a better silver bracelet than we sell
at Niagara for ten."
The burden of these reflections was lightened
when he approached Fort Frontenac. "Never was
reception more solemn. The Nipissings and Algon-
quins, who were going on a war-party with Monsieur
Bel6tre, formed a line of their own accord, and
saluted us with three volleys of musketry, and cries
of joy without end. All our little bark vessels
replied in the same way. Monsieur de VerchSres
and Monsieur de Valtry ordered the cannon of the
1 Compare Doc, Hist, N. Y., L 463.
175LJ SUCCESS OP PIQUET. 79
fort to be fired; and my Indians, transported with
joy at the honor done them, shot off their guns inces-
santly, with cries and acclamations that delighted
everybody/' A goodly band of recruits joined him,
and he pursued his voyage to La Pr&entation, while
the canoes of his proselytes followed in a swarm to
their new home; ^^that establishment" — thus in a
burst of enthusiasm he closes his Journal — ^^that
establishment which I began two years ago, in the
midst of opposition; that establishment which may
be regarded as a key of the colony; that establish-
ment which officers, interpreters, and traders thought
m
a chimera, —that establishment, I say, forms already
a mission of Iroquois savages whom I assembled at
first to the number of only six, increased last year to
eighty-seven, and this year to three hundred and
ninety-six, without counting more than a hundred
and fifty whom Monsieur Chabert de Joncaire is to
bring me this autumn. And I certify that thus far
I have received from His Majesty — for all favor,
grace, and assistance — no more than a half pound
of bacon and two pounds of bread for daily rations;
and that he has not yet given a pin to the chapel,
which I have maintained out of my own pocket, for
the greater glory of my masters, God and the
King."i
1 Journal qui peut servir de Mimoire et de Relation du Voyage que
fay fait twr It Lac Ontario pour attirer au nouvel ^tablissement de La
Pr€$entution let Sauvages Iroquois des Cinq Nations, 1761. The last
puMige giyen above is condensed in the rendering, as the original
!• extremely inrolTed and ungrammatical.
80 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1761.
In his late journey he had made the entire circuit
of Lake Ontario. Beyond lay four other inland
oceans, to which Fort Niagara was the key. As that
all-essential post controlled the passage from Ontario
to Erie, so did Fort Detroit control that from Erie to
Huron, and Fort Michilimackinac that from Huron
to Michigan ; while Fort Ste. Marie, at the outlet of
Lake Superior, had lately received a garrison, and
changed from a mission and trading-station to a post
of war.^ This immense extent of inland navigation
was safe in the hands of France so long as she held
Niagara. Niagara lost, not only the lakes, but also
the Valley of the Ohio was lost with it. Next in
importance was Detroit. This was not a military
post alone, but also a settlement; and, except the
hamlets about Fort Chartres, the only settlement
that France owned in all the West. There were, it
is true, but a few families ; yet the hope of growth
seemed good ; for to such as liked a wilderness hom^,
no spot in America had more attraction. Father
Bonnecamp stopped here for a day on his way back
from the expedition of Celoron. "The situation,"
he says, "is charming. A fine river flows at the foot
of the fortifications; vast meadows, asking only to
be tilled, extend beyond the sight. Nothing can be
more agreeable than the climate. Winter lasts hardly
two months. European grains and fruits grow here
far better than in many parts of France. It is the
Touraine and Beauce of Canada."* The white flag
^ La Jonquihre au Ministre, 24 AoAt, 1750.
• Relation du Voiage de la BtlU Riviere, 1749.
J750, 1761.1 DETROIT. 81
of the Bourbons floated over the compact little pali-
saded town, with its population of soldiers and fur-
traders; and from the blockhouses which served as
bastions, one saw on either hand the small solid
dwellings of the habitants^ ranged at intervals along
the margin of the water; while at a little distance
three Indian villages — Ottawa, Pottawattamie, and
Wyandot — curled their wigwam smoke into the pure
summer air.^
When C^loron de Bienville returned from the
Ohio, he went, with a royal commission, sent him a
year before, to command at Detroit.^ His late chap-
lain, the very intelligent Father Bonnecamp, speaks
of him as fearless, energetic, and full of resource;
but the governor calls him haughty and insubordinate.
Great efforts were made, at the same time, to build
up Detroit as a centre of French power in the West.
The methods employed were of the debilitating,
paternal character long familiar to Canada. All
emigrants with families were to be carried thither at
the King's expense ; and every settler was to receive
in free gift a gun, a hoe, an axe, a ploughshare, a
scythe, a sickle, two augers, large and small, a sow,
six hens, a cock, six pounds of powder, and twelve
pounds of lead; while to these favors were added
many others. The result was that twelve families
^ A plan of Detroit is before me, made about this time hy the
engineer Lery.
* Le Ministrt h La Jonouih'e et Bigot, 14 Mai, 1749. Le Ministry h
C^hrom, 28 Mai, 1740.
VOL. I. — 6
82 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1760, 1761.
were persuaded to go, or about a twentieth part of
the number wanted.^ Detroit was expected to fur-
nish supplies to the other posts for five hundred
miles around, control the neighboring Indians,
thwart English machinations, and drive off English
interlopers.
La Galissonidre no longer governed Canada. He
had been honorably recalled, and the Marquis de la
Jonquidre sent in his stead. ^ La Jonquifere, like his
predecessor, was a naval o£Qcer of high repute; he
was tall and imposing in person, and of undoubted
capacity and courage ; but old and, according to his
enemies, very avaricious.^ The colonial minister
gave him special instructions regarding that thorn in
the side of Canada, Oswegb. To attack it openly
would be indiscreet, as the two nations were at
peace; but there was a way of dealing with it less
hazardous, if not more lawful. This was to attack it
vicariously by means of the Iroquois. "If Ahh6
Piquet succeeds in his mission," wrote the minister
to the new governor, " we can easily persuade these
^ Ordonnance du 2 Janvier, 1760. La Jonquiere et Bigot au Mi"
m'Mtre, 1750. Forty-six persons of all ages and both sexes had been
induced by La Gktlissoni^re to go the year before. Lettres communes
de La Jonquiere et Bigot, 1749. The total fixed population of Detroit
and its neighborhood in 1760 is stated at fonr hundred and eighty-
three souls. In the following two years, a considerable number of
young men came of their own accord, and C^loron wrote to Mont-
real to ask for girls to marry them.
* Le Ministre a La GcUissonih'e, 14 Mai, 1749.
* M€moire$ tur ie Canada, 174&-1760. The charges made here
and elsewhere are denied, somewhat faintly, by a descendant of La
Jonquiere in his elaborate Notice biographique of his ancestor.
1760, 1761.] CLINTON AND LA JONQUlftRK 88
savages to destroy Oswego. This is of the utmost
importance; but act with great caution."^ In the
next year the minister wrote again: "The only
means that can be used for such an operation in time
of peace are those of the Iroquois. If by making
these savages regard such an establishment {^Oswego]
as opposed to their liberty, and, so to speak, a usur-
pation by which the English mean to get possession
of their lands, they could be induced to undertake its
destruction, an operation of the sort is not to be
neglected; but M. le Marquis de la Jonqui^re should
feel with what circumspection such an affair should
be conducted, and he should labor to accomplish it
in a manner not to commit himself."^ To this La
Jonquidre replies that it will need time ; but that he
will g^radually bring the Iroquois to attack and
destroy the English post. He received stringent
orders to use every means to prevent the English
from encroaching, but to act towards them at the
same time "with the greatest politeness."^ Thifi
last injunction was scarcely fulfilled in a correspond-
ence which he had with Clinton, governor of New
York, who had written to complain of the new post
at the Niagara portage as an invasion of English
territory, and also of the arrest of four English
1 Le Ministre a La Jonqw'ere, Mai, 1749. The instructions given
to La Jonquibre before leaving France also urge the necessity of
destroying Oswego.
• Ordres du Roy et Dfpeches des Ministres ; h MM. de La Jonquikr
ti Bigot, 16 Avril, 1760. See Appendix A for original.
• Ordre$ du Roy ei Depeches des Ministres, 1750.
84 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1750, 1761.
traders in the country of the Miamis. Niagara, like
Oswego, was in the country of the Five Nations,
whom the treaty of Utrecht declared "subject to the
dominion of Great Britain."^ This declaration, pre-
posterous in itself, was binding on France, whose
plenipotentiaries had signed the treaty. The treaty
also provided that the subjects of the two Crowns
"shall enjoy full liberty of going and coming on
account of trade," and Clinton therefore demanded
that La Jonquidre should disavow the arrest of the
four traders and punish its authors. The French
governor replied with great asperity, spumed the
claim that the Five Nations were British subjects,
and justified the arrest.* He presently went further.
Rewards were offered by his ofiScers for the scalps
of Croghan and of another trader named Lowry.'
When this reached the ears of William Johnson, on
the Mohawk, he wrote to Clinton in evident anxiety
for his own scalp: "If the French go on so, there is
no man can be safe in his own house ; for I can at
any time get an Indian to kill any man for a small
matter. Their going on in that manner is worse
than open war."
The French on their side made counter-accusa-
tions. The captive traders were examined on oath
before La Jonquidre, and one of them, John Patton,
1 Chalmers, Collection of Treaties, i. 882.
* La Jonquiere a Clinton^ 10 AoiCttf 1751.
* Deposition of Morris Turner and Ralph Kilgore, in Colonial
Records of Pa,, r. 482. The deponents had been prisoners at
Detroit
17(S(^ 1751.] LA J0NQUI£:R£'S TROUBLES. 85
18 reported to have said that Croghan had instigated
Indians to kill Frenchmen.^ French officials declared
that other English traders were guilty of the same
practices; and there is very little doubt that the
charge was true.
The dispute with the English was not the only
source of trouble to the governor. His superiors at
Versailles would not adopt his views, and looked on
him with distrust. He advised the building of forts
near Lake Erie, and his advice was rejected.
"Niagara and Detroit," he was told, "will secure
forever our communications with Louisiana." ^ " His
Majesty," again wrote the colonial minister, " thought
that expenses would diminish after the peace; but,
on the contrary, they have increased. There must
be great abuses. You and the intendant must look
to it."* Great abuses there were; and of the money
sent to Canada for the service of the King the larger
part found its way into the pockets of peculators.
The colony was eaten to the heart with official cor-
ruption; and the centre of it was Fran9ois Bigot,
the intendant. The minister directed La Jonquidre's
attention to certain malpractices which had been
reported to him; and the old man, deeply touched,
replied : " I have reached the age of sixty-six years,
and there is not a drop of blood in my veins that does
not thrill for the service of my King. I will not
* Precis des Fails, avec leurs Pieces justijicatives, 100.
' Ordres du Roy et D^piches des Ministres, 1750.
• Ibid., 6 Juin, 1761.
86 CONFLICT FOR THB WEST. [1750-1752.
eonceal £rom you that the slightest suspicion on your
part against me would cut the thread of my days.*' ^
Perplexities increased; affairs in the West grew
worse and worse. La Jonquifire ordered C^loron to
attack the English at Pickawillany; and C^loron
could not or would not obey. "I cannot express,"
writes the governor, "how much this business troubles
me; it robs me of sleep; it makes me ill." Another
letter of rebuke presently came from Versailles.
" Last year you wrote that you would soon drive the
English from the Ohio; but private letters say that
you have done nothing. This is deplorable. If not
expelled, they will seem to acquire a right against
us. Send force enough at once to drive them off,
and cure them of all wish to return."^ La Jonqui^re
answered with bitter complaints against C^loron,
and then begged to be recalled. His health, already
shattered, was ruined by fatigue and vexation; and
he took to his bed. Before spring he was near his
end.' It is said that, though very rich, his habits of
thrift so possessed his last hours that, seeing wax
candles burning in his chamber, he ordered others of
tallow to be brought instead, as being good enough
to die by. Thus frugally lighted on its way, his
spirit fled ; and the Baron de Longueuil took his
place till a new governor should arrive.
1 hok Jonquihre au Minittre, 19 Octobre, 1751.
* Ordres du Roy et Dipiches de$ Afinistres, 1751.
* He died on the sixth of March, 1752 {Bigot au Ministre, 6 Mat) ;
not on the seyenteenth of May, as stated in the M^nunreM tur U
Canada, 174&-1760.
1751,1762.] PERIL OF THE FRENCH. 87
Sinister tidings came thick from the West. Ray-
mond, commandant at the French fort on the
Maumee, close to the centre of intrigue, wrote;
**My people are leaving me for Detroit. Nobody
wants to stay here and have hiB throat cut. All the
tribes who go to the English at Pickawillany come
back loaded with gifts. I am too weak to meet the
danger. Instead of twenty men, I need five hundred.
. . . We have made peace with the English, yet they
try continually to make war on us by means of the
Indians; they intend to be masters of all this upper
country. The tribes here are leaguing together to
kill all the French, that they may have nobody on
their lands but their English brothers. This I am
told by Coldf oot, a great Miami chief, whom I think
an honest man, if there is any such thing among
Indians. ... If the English stay in this country we
are lost. We must attack, and drive them out."
And he tells of war-belts sent from tribe to tribe,
and rumors of plots and conspiracies far and near.
Without doubt, the English traders spared no
pains to gain over the Indians by fair means or foul;
sold them goods at low rates, made ample gifts, and
gave gunpowder for the asking. Saint-Ange, who
commanded at Yinceimes, wrote that a storm would
soon burst on the heads of the French. Joncaire
reported that all the Ohio Indians sided with the
English. Longueuil informed the minister that the
Miamis had scalped two soldiers ; that the Piankishaws
had killed seven Frenchmen; and that a squaw who
88 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1751, 1762
had lived with one of the slain - declared that the
tribes of the Wabash and Illinois were leaguing with
the Osages for a combined insurrection. Every
letter brought news of murder. Small -pox had
broken out at Detroit. "It is to be wished," says
Longueuil, " that it would spread among our rebels ;
it would be fully as good as an army. . . . We are
menaced with a general outbreak, and even Toronto
is in danger. . . . Before long the English on the
Miami will gain over all the surrounding tribes, get
possession of Fort Chartres, and cut our communica-
tions with Louisiana. "»
The moving spirit of disaffection was the chief
called Old Britain, or the Demoiselle, and its focus
was his town of Pickawillany, on the Miami. At
this place it is said that English traders sometimes
mustered to the number of fifty or more. "It is
they," wrote Longueuil, "who are the instigators of
revolt and the source of all our woes."^ Whereupon
the colonial minister reiterated his instructions to
drive them off and plunder them, which he thought
would "effectually disgust them," and bring all
trouble to an end.*
La Jonquidre's remedy had been more heroic, for
he had ordered C^loron to attack the English and
their red allies alike; and he charged that officer
^ D€piche» de Longueuil; Lettres de Raymond; Benoit de Saint*
Clerc h La Jonquihrtf Octobre, 1751.
* Longueuil au Minietre, 21 Avril, 1752.
* Le Ministre h La Jonquih^e, 1752. Z^ Ministrt h Duqueent^ 9
JuiOet, 1752.
1752.] CHARLES LANGLADE. 89
with arrogance and disobedience because he had not
done so. It is not certain that obedience was easy;
for though, besides the garrison of regulars, a strong
body of militia was sent up to Detroit to aid the
stroke,^ the Indians of that post, whose co-operation
was thought necessary, proved half-hearted, intract-
able and even touched with disaffection. Thus the
enterprise languished till, in June, aid came from
another quarter. Charles Langlade, a young French
trader married to a squaw at Green Bay, and strong
in influence with the tribes of that region, came down
the lakes from Michilimackinac with a fleet of canoes
manned by two hundred and fifty Ottawa and O jibwa
warriors; stopped a while at Detroit; then embarked
again, paddled up the Maumee to Raymond's fort at
the portage, and led his greased and painted rabble
through the forest to attack the Demoiselle and his
English friends. They approached Pickawillany at
about nine o'clock on the morning of the twenty-
first. The scared squaws fled from the cornfields into
the town, where the wigwams of the Indians clustered
about the fortified warehouse of the traders. Of
these there were at the time only eight in the place.
Most of the Indians also were gone on their summer
hunt, though the Demoiselle remained with a band of
his tribesmen. Great was the screeching of war-whoops
and clatter of guns. Three of the traders were
caught outside the fort. The remaining five closed
the gate, and stood on tiieir defence. The fight was
^ La Jonquiere d C^oron, 1 Octobre, 1761.
90 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [1762.
soon over. Fourteen Miamis were shot down, the
Demoiselle among the rest. The five white men held
out till the afternoon, when three of them surrendered,
and two, Thomas Bumey and Andrew McBryer, made
their escape. One of the English prisoners being
wounded, the victors stabbed him to death. Seventy
years of missionaries had not weaned them from can-
nibalism, and they boiled and ate the Demoiselle.^
The captive traders, plundered to the skin, were
carried by Langlade to Duquesne, the new governor,
who highly praised the bold leader of the enterprise,
and recommended him to the minister for such
reward as befitted one of his station. ^^ As he is not
in the King's service, and has married a squaw, I
will ask for him only a pension of two hundred
francs, which will flatter him infinitely."
The Marquis Duquesne, sprung from the race of
the great naval commander of that name, had arrived
towards midsummer; and he began his rule by a
general review of troops and militia. His lofty
bearing offended the Canadians; but he compelled
their respect, and, according to a writer of the time,
showed from the first that he was bom to command.
He presently took in hand an enterprise which his
predecessor would probably have accomplished, had
the home government encouraged him. Duquesne,
profiting by the infatuated neglect of the British
1 On the attack of Pickawillany, Longtkeuil au Ministrt, 18 Aont,
1762; DuquesM au Ministre, 25 Octohre, 1752; Colonial Records of
Pa., T. 590 ; Journal of William Trent, 1752. Trent was on the spot
a few days after the afEair.
1768.] DUQUESNE. 91
provincial assemblies, prepared to occupy the upper
waters of the Ohio, and secure the passes with forts
and garrisons. Thus the Virginian and Pennsyl-
vanian traders would be debarred all access to the
West, and the tribes of that region, bereft henceforth
of English guns, knives, hatchets, and blankets, Eng-
lish gifts and English cajoleries, would be thrown
back to complete dependence on the French. The
moral influence, too, of such a movement would be in-
calculable ; for the Indian respects nothing so much
as a display of vigor and daring, backed by force.
In short, the intended enterprise was a master-stroke,
and laid the axe to the very root of disaffection. It
is true that, under the treaty, commissioners had
been long in session at Paris to settle the question of
American boundaries; but there was no likelihood
that they would come to agreement; and if France
would make good her western claims, it behooved
her, while there was yet time, to prevent her rival
£rom fastening a firm grasp on the countries in
dispute.
Yet the colonial minister regarded the plan with
distrust. " Be on your guard, " he wrote to Duquesne,
''against new undertakings; private interests are
generally at the bottom of them. It is through these
that new posts are established. Keep only such as
are indispensable, and suppress the others. The
expenses of the colony are enormous; and they have
doubled since the peace." Again, a little later:
** Build on the Ohio such forts as are absolutely
92 CONFLICT FOR THE WEST. [175a
necessary, but no more. Remember that His Majesly
suspects your advisers of interested views." ^
No doubt there was justice in the suspicion.
Every military movement^ and above all the establish-
ment of every new post, was an opportunity to the
official thieves with whom the colony swarmed.
Some bands of favored knaves grew rich; while a
much greater number, excluded from sharing the
illicit profits, clamored against the undertaking, and
wrote charges of corruption to Versailles. Thus the
minister was kept tolerably well informed, but was
scarcely the less helpless, for with the Atlantic
between, the disorders of Canada defied his control.
Duquesne was exasperated by the opposition that
met him on all hands, and wrote to the minister:
^^ There are so many rascals in this country that one
is forever the butt of their attacks." ^
It seems that unlawful gain was not the only secret
spring of the movement. An officer of repute says
that the intendant, Bigot, enterprising in his pleasures
as in his greed, was engaged in an intrigue with the
wife of Chevalier P^an ; and wishing at once to con-
sole the husband and to get rid of him, sought for
him a high command at a distance from the colony.
Therefore while Marin, an able officer, was made
first in rank, P^an was made second. The same
writer hints that Duquesne himself was influenced by
similar motives in his appointment of leaders.^
1 Ordres du Roy et D€piche$ des Afimstres, 1763.
* Duquune au Minittre, 29 Septembre, 1764.
* Poncho t, M€moir€ sur la demiere Guerre de l*Am€rique septeih
ifionale {td, 1781)^ i. a
1753.] THE OHIO ENTERPRISE. 98
He mustered the colony troops, and ordered out
the Canadians. With the former he was but half
satisfied; with the latter he was delighted; and he
praises highly their obedience and alacrity. ^^Ihad
not the least trouble in getting them to march.
They came on the minute, bringing their own guns,
though many people tried to excite them to revolt;
for the whole colony opposes my operations." The
expedition set out early in the spring of 1753. The
whole force was not much above a thousand men,
increased by subsequent detachments to fifteen hun-
dred; but to the Indians it seemed a mighty host;
and one of their orators declared that the lakes and
rivers were covered with boats and soldiers from
Montreal to Presqu'isle.* Some Mohawk hunters by
the St. Lawrence saw them as they passed, and
hastened home to tell the news to Johnson, whom
they wakened at midnight, "whooping and hollow-
ing in a frightful manner."^ Lieutenant Holland at
Oswego saw a fleet of canoes upon the lake, and was
told by a roving Frenchman that they belonged to
an army of six thousand men going to the Ohio, " to
cause all the English to quit those parts." ^
The main body of the expedition landed at
Presqu'isle, on the southeastern shore of Lake Erie,
where the town of Erie now stands; and here for a
while we leave them.
^ Duqtusne au Minigtre, 27 Octobre, 1768.
« Johnson to Clinton, 20 April, 1763, in N. Y. Col. Does., ri. 778
• Holland to Clinton, 16 May, 1763, in N. Y. Col. Dots., ri. 780
CHAPTER IV.
1710-1754
CONFLICT FOR ACADIA.
aoadll ceded to england. — aoadianb 8wbab fidblitt. -«
Halifax founded. — Fbbnch Intrigue. — Aoadian Priests. —
Mildness of English Rule. — Covert Hostility of Aoa-
DiANS. — The New Oath. — Treachery of Versailles. —
Indians incited to War. — Clerical Agents of Revolt.
— ABBt Lb Loutre. — Acadians impelled to emigrate. —
Misery of the Emigrants. — Humanity of Cornwallis and
HopsoN. — Fanaticism and Violence of Lb Loutre. — Cap-
ture OF the " St. FRAN9018." — The English at Bbau«
bassin. — Lb Loutre drives out the Inhabitants. — Murder
OF Howe. — Beaus^jour. — Insolence of Lb Loutre : his
Harshness to the Acadians. — The Boundary Commission:
ITS Failure. — Approaching War.
While in the West all the signs of the sky fore-
boded storm, another tempest was gathering in the
East, less in extent, but not less in peril. The con-
flict in Acadia has a melancholy interest, since it
ended in a catastrophe which prose and verse have
joined to commemorate, but of which the causes
have not been understood.
Acadia — that is to say, the peninsula of Nova
Scotia, with the addition, as the English claimed, of
the present New Brunswick and some adjacent
country — was conquered by General Nicholson in
1
1710-1749.] OATH OF FIDELITY. 95
1710, and formally transferred by France to the
British- Crown, three years later, by the treaty of
Utrecht. By that treaty it was " expressly provided "
that such of the French inhabitants as ^^ are willing
to remain there and to be subject to the Kingdom of
Great Britain, are to enjoy the free exercise of their
religion according to the usage of the Church of
Rome, as far as the laws of Great Britain do allow
the- same ; " but that any who choose may remove,
with their effects, if they do so within a year. Very
few availed themselves of this right; and after the
end of the year those who remained were required
to take an oath of allegiance to King George. There
is no doubt that in a little time they would have
complied, had they been let alone; but the French
authorities of Canada and Cape Breton did their
utmost to prevent them, and employed agents to keep
them hostile to England. Of these the most efficient
were the French priests, who, in spite of the treaty,
persuaded their flocks that they were still subjects of
King Louis. Hence rose endless perplexity to the
English commanders at Annapolis, who more than
suspected that the Indian attacks with which they
were harassed were due mainly to French instiga-
tion.^ It was not till seventeen years after the treaty
that the Acadians could be brought to take the oath
without qualifications which made it almost useless.
1 See the namerouB papers in Selections fiom the Public Docu-
wtent$ of the Province of Nova Scotia (Halifax, 1869), pp. 1-166; a
goyemment publication of great yalue.
96 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [174Q.
The English authorities seem to have shown through-
out an unusual patience and forbearance. At length,
about 1780, nearly all the inhabitants signed bj
crosses, since few of them could write, an oath recog-
nizing George II. as sovereign of Acadia, and promis-
ing fidelity and obedience to him.^ This restored
comparative quiet till the war of 1745, when some of
the Acadians remained neutral, while some took
arms against the English, and many others aided, the
enemy with information and supplies.
English power in Acadia, hitherto limited to a
feeble garrison at Annapolis and a feebler one at
Canseau, received at this time a great accession.
The fortress of Louisbourg, taken by the English
during the war, had been restored by the treaty;
and the French at once prepared to make it a mili-
tary and naval station more formidable than ever.
Upon this the British ministry resolved to establish
another station as a counterpoise ; and the harbor of
Chebucto, on the south coast of Acadia, was chosen
as the site of it. Thither in June, 1749, came a fleet
of transports loaded with emigrants, tempted by
offers of land and a home in the New World. Some
were mechanics, tradesmen, farmers, and laborers;
others were sailors, soldiers, and subaltern officers
thrown out of employment by the peace. Including
1 The oath was literatim as follows : *' Je Promets et Jure Sincere-
ment en Foi de Chretien que Je serai entierement Fidele, et Obeierai
Yndment Sa Biajest^ Le Roj George Second, qui [sic] Je reconnoi
poor Le Souvrain Seigneur de I'Accadie ou Nouyelle Ecosse.
Ainsi Dieu me Soit en Aide."
1749-1754.] HALIFAX. 97
women and children, they counted in all about
twenty-five hundred. Alone of all the British
colonies on the continent, this new settlement was
the offspring, not of private enterprise, but of royal
authority. Yet it was free like the rest, with the
same popular representation and local self-govern-
ment. Edward Comwallis, imcle of Lord Comwallis
of the Revolutionary War, was made governor and
commander-in-chief. Wolfe calls him "a man of
approved courage and fidelity; " and even the caustic
Horace Walpole speaks of him as "a brave, sensible
young man, of great temper and good nature."
Before summer was over, the streets were laid out,
and the building-lot of each settler was assigned to
him; before winter closed, the whole were imder
shelter, the village was fenced with palisades and
defended by redoubts of timber, and the battalions
lately in garrison at Louisbourg manned the wooden
ramparts. Succeeding years brought more emigrants,
till in 1752 the population was above four thousand.
Thus was bom into the world the city of Halifax.
Along with the crumbling old fort and miserably
disciplined garrison at Annapolis, besides six or seven
small detached posts to watch the Indians and
Acadians, it comprised the whole British force on the
peninsula; for Canseau had been destroyed by the
French.
The French had never reconciled themselves to
the loss of Acadia, and were resolved, by diplomacy
or force, to win it back again; but the building of
VOL. I. — 7
98 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1764
Halifax showed that this was to be no easy task, and
filled them at the same time with alarm for the safety
of Louisbourg. On one point, at least, they saw
their policy clear. The Acadians, though those of
them who were not above thirty-five had been bom
under the British flag, must be kept French at
heart, and taught that they were still French sub-
jects. In 1748 they numbered eighty-eight hundred
and fifty communicants, or from twelve to thirteen
thousand souls; but an emigration, of which the
causes will soon appear, had reduced them in 1752
to but little more than nine thousand.^ These were
divided into six principal parishes, one of the largest
being that of Annapolis. Other centres of popular
tion were Grand Pr^, on the Basin of Mines ; Beau-
bassin, at the head of Chignecto Bay; Pisiquid, now
Windsor; and Cobequid, now Truro. Their priests,
who were missionaries controlled by the diocese of
Quebec, acted also as their magistrates, ruling them
for this world and the next. Being subject to a
French superior, and being, moreover, wholly French
at heart, they formed in this British province a wheel
within a wheel, the inner movement always opposing
the outer.
Although, by the twelfth article of the treaty of
Utrecht, France had solemnly declared the Acadians
^ Description de l*Acadie, avec le Nom des Paroisses et le Nombre
des Habitants, 1748. M€moire d presenter a la Cow sur la Necessity
de fixer les Limites de VAcadie, par I'Abb^ de I'lsle-Dieu, 1768
(17641). Compare the eitimatei in Censuses of Canada (Ottawsi
1876).
1748^1764.] ACADIAN PRIESTS. 99
to be British subjects, the govemment of Louis XV
intrigued continually to turn. them from subjects into
enemies. Before me is a mass of English documents
on Acadian affairs from the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle
to the catastrophe of 1755, and above a thousand
pages of French official papers from the archives of
Paris, memorials, reports, and secret correspondence,
relating to the same matters. With the help of
these and some collateral lights, it is not difficult to
make a correct diagnosis of the political disease that
ravaged this miserable country. Of a multitude of
proofs, only a few can be given here ; but these will
suffice.
It was not that the Acadians had been ill-used by
the English; the reverse was the case. They had
been left in tree exercise of their worship, as stipu-
lated by treaty. It is true that, from time to time,
tiiere were loud complaints from French officials that
religion was in danger, because certain priests had
been rebuked, arrested, brought before the Council
at Halifax, suspended from their functions, or
required, on pain of banishment, to swear that they
would do nothing against the interests of King
Greorge. Yet such action on the part of the pro-
vincial authorities seems, without a single exceptioit,
1p have been the consequence of misconduct on the
part of the priest, in opposing the govemment and
stirring his flock to disaffection. La Jonqui^re, the
determined adversary of the English, reported to the
bishop that they did not oppose the ecclesiastics in
100 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1751
the exercise of their functions, and an order of Louis
XV. admits that the Acadians have enjoyed liberty
of religion.^ In a long document addressed in 1750
to the colonial minister at Versailles, Roma, an
officer at Louisboui^g, testifies thus to the mildness
of British rule, though he ascribes it to interested
motives. " The fear that the Acadians have of the
Indians is the controlling motive which makes them
side with the French. The English, having in view
the conquest of Canada, wished to give the French
of that colony, in their conduct towards the Acadians,
a striking example of the mildness of their govern-
ment. Without raising the fortime of any of the
inhabitants, they have supplied them for more than
thirty-five years with the necessaries of life, often on
credit and with an excess of confidence, without
troubling their debtors, without pressing them, with-
out wishing to force them to pay. They have left
them an appearance of liberty so excessive that they
have not intervened in their disputes or even punished
their crimes. They have allowed them to refuse with
insolence certain moderate rents payable in grain
and lawfully due. They have passed over in silence
the contemptuous refusal of the Acadians to take
titles from them for the new lands which they chose
to occupy.*
1 La Jonqmkrt h r£vique de Qu€bee, 14 Juin, 1760. Memoirt dm
Roy pour Merm'r d* Instruction au Comie de Raymond, command<int pout
Sa Maj€9t€h VIsle RoyaU [Cape Breton], 24 Avnl, 1761.
* See Appendix B.
174^-1754.] ACADIAN HOSTILITY. 101
" We know very well, ** pursues Roma, " the fruits
of this conduct in the last war; and the £nglish
know it also. Judge then what will be the wrath
and vengeance of this cruel nation." The fruits to
which Roma alludes were the hostilities, open or
secret, committed by the Acadians against the Eng-
lish. He now ventures the prediction that the
enraged conquerors will take their revenge by draft-
ing all the young Acadians on board their ships-of-
war, and there destroying them by slow starvation.
He proved, however, a false prophet. The English
governor merely required the inhabitants to renew
their oath of allegiance, without qualification or
evasion.
It was twenty years since the Acadians had taken
such an oath ; and meanwhile a new generation had
grown up. The old oath pledged them to fidelity
and obedience; but they averred that Phillips, then
governor of the province, had given them, at the
same time, assurance that they should not be required
to bear arms against either French or Indians. In
fact, such service had not been demanded of them,
and they would have lived in virtual neutrality, had
not many of them broken their oaths and joined the
French war-parties. For this reason Comwallis
thought it necessary that, in renewing the pledge,
they should bind themselves to an allegiance as com-
plete as that required of other British subjects. This
spread general consternation. Deputies from the
Acadian settlements appeared at Halifax, bringing a
102 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754.
paper signed with the marks of a thousand persons.
The following passage contains the pith of it. ^ The
inhabitants in general, sir, over the whole extent of
this country are resolved not to take the oath which
your Excellency requires of us; but if your Excel-
lency will grant us our old oath, with an exemption
for ourselves and our heirs from taking up arms, we
will accept it."^ The answer of Comwallis was by
no means so stem as it has been represented.' After
the formal reception he talked in private with the
deputies; and "they went home in good humor,
promising great things."*
The refusal of the Acadians to take the required
oath was not wholly spontaneous, but was mainly
due to influence from without. The French officials
of Cape Breton and Isle St. Jean, now Prince
Edward Island, exerted themselves to the utmost,
chiefly through the agency of the priests, to excite
the people to refuse any oath that should commit
them fully to British allegiance. At the same time
means were used to induce them to migrate to the
neighboring islands under French rule, and efforts
were also made to set on the Indians to attack the
English. But the plans of the French will best
appear in a despatch sent by La Jonquidre to the
colonial minister in the autumn of 1749.
" Monsieur Comwallis issued an order on the tenth
* Public Document* of Nova Scotia, 173.
* See Ibid,, 174, where the answer is printed.
" Comwallis to the Board of Trade, 11 September, 1740.
1749-1764.] COVERT WAR. 108
of the said month [Augtisi]^ to the effect that if the
inhabitants will remain faithful subjects of the King
of Great Britain, he will allow them priests and
public exercise of their religion, with the under-
standing that no priest shall officiate without his
permission or before taking an oath of fidelity to the
King of Great Britain. Secondly, that the inhabit-
ants shall not be exempted from defending their
houses, their lands, and the Government. Thirdly,
that they shall take an oath of fidelity to the King
of Great Britain, on the twenty-sixth of this month,
before officers sent them for that purpose."
La Jonquidre proceeds to say that on hearing these
conditions the Acadians were filled with perplexity
and alarm, and that he, the governor, had directed
Boish^bert, his chief officer on the Acadian frontier,
to encourage them to leave their homes and seek
asylum on French soil. He thus recounts the steps
he has taken to harass the English of Halifax by
means of their Indian neighbors. As peace had been
declared, the operation was delicate ; and when three
of these Indians came to him from their missionary,
Le Loutre, with letters on the subject. La Jonqui^re
was discreetly reticent. "I did not care to give
them any advice upon the matter, and confined my-
self to a promise that I would on no account abandon
them ; and I have provided for supplying them with
everything, whether arms, ammunition, food, or
other necessaries. It is to be desired that these
savages should succeed in thwarting the designs of
104 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [174d-1754
the English, and even their settlement at Hali&x.
They are bent on doing so; and if they can carry
out their plans, it is certain that they will give the
English great trouble, and so harass them that they
will be a great obstacle in their path. These savages
are to act alone ; neither soldier nor French inhabit-
ant is to join them ; everything will be done of their
own motion, and without showing that I had any
knowledge of the matter. This is very essential;
therefore I have written to the Sieur de Boish^bert to
observe great prudence in his measures, and to act
very secretly, in order that the English may not
perceive that we are providing for the needs of the
said savages.
^^It will be the missionaries who will manage all
the negotiation, and direct the movements of the
savages, who are in excellent hands, as the Reverend
Father Germain and Monsieur I'Abb^ Le Loutre are
very capable of making the most of them, and using
them to the greatest advantage for our interests.
They will manage their intrigue in such a way as
not to appear in it."
La Jonquidre then recounts the good results which
he expects from these measures: first, the English
will be prevented from making any new settlements ;
secondly, we shall gradually get the Acadians out
of their hands; and lastly, they will be so discour-
aged by constant Indian attacks that they will
renounce their pretensions to the parts of the
country belonging to the King of France. "I feel.
1760.] COVERT WAR. 106
Monseigneur," — thus the governor concludes his
despatch, — " all the delicacy of this negotiation ; be
assured that I will conduct it with such precaution
that the English will not be able to say that my
orders had any part in it."^
He kept his word, and so did the missionaries.
The Indians gave great trouble on the outskirts of
Halifax, and murdered many harmless settlers; yet
the English authorities did not at first suspect that
they were hounded on by their priests, under the
direction of the governor of Canada, and with the
privity of the minister at Versailles. More than
this; for, looking across the sea, we find royalty
itself lending its august countenance to the machina-
tion. Among the letters read before the King in his
cabinet in May, 1750, was one from Desherbiers, then
commanding at Louisbourg, sajring that he was advis-
ing the Acadians not to take the oath of allegiance
to the King of England; another from Le Loutre,
declaring that he and Father Germain were consult-
ing together how to disgust the English with their
enterprise of Halifax ; and a third from the intendant,
Bigot, announcing that Le Loutre was using the
Indians to harass the new settlement, and that he
himself was sending them powder, lead, and mer-
chandise, "to confirm them in their good designs."*
To this the minister replies in a letter to Desher-
biers: "His Majesty is well satisfied with all you
* hn Jonqutere au yfiniatre, 9 Ortobre, 1749. See Appendix B.
* Riiumidts Lettres hits au Travail du Roy, Mai, 1760.
106 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1760, 176L
have done to thwart the English in their new estab-
lishment. If the dispositions of the savages are such
as they seem, there is reason to hope that in the
course of the winter they will succeed in so harassing
the settlers that some of them will become disheart-
ened." Desherbiers is then told that His Majesty
desires him to aid English deserters in escaping from
Halifax.^ Supplies for the Indians are also promised ;
and he is informed that twelve medals are sent him
by the frigate "La Mutine," to be given to the chiefs
who shall most distinguish themselves. In another
letter Desherbiers is enjoined to treat the English
authorities with great politeness.'
When Count Raymond took command at Louis-
bourg, he was instructed, under the royal hand, to
give particular attention to the affairs of Acadia,
especially in two points, — the management of the
Indians, and the encouraging of Acadian emigration
to countries under French rule. "His Majesty,"
says the document, "has already remarked that the
savages have been most favorably disposed. It is
of the utmost importance that no means be neglected
to keep them so. The missionaries among them are
in a better position than anybody to contribute to
this end, and His Majesty has reason to be satisfied
with the pains they take therein. The Sieur de
1 In 1760 nine captured deserters from PhiUips's regiment de-
clared on their trial that the French had aided them and supplied
them all with monej. PvUic DocumenU of Nova Scotia, 103.
• Le Minittrt h Desherbierg, 23 Mai, 1760 ; Ibid., 31 Mai, 1760.
I741>-1764.] COVERT WAR. 107
Raymond will excite these missionaries not to slacken
their efforts ; but he will warn them at the same time
80 to contain their zeal as not to compromise them-
selves with the English, and give just occasion of
complaint."! That is, the King orders his representa-
tive to encourage the missionaries in instigating their
flocks to butcher English settlers, but to see that
they take care not to be found out. The injunction
was hardly needed. ^* Monsieur Desherbiers," says a
letter of earlier date, ^^has engaged Abb^ Le Loutre
to distribute the usual presents among the savages,
and Monsieur Bigot has placed in his hands an addi-
tional gift of cloth, blankets, powder, and ball, to be
given them in case they harass the English at
Halifax. This missionary is to induce them to do
so."' In spite of these efforts, the Indians began to
relent in their hostilities; and when Longueuil
became provisional governor of Canada, he com-
plained to the minister that it was very difficult to
prevent them from making peace with the English,
though Father Germain was doing his best to keep
them on the war-path.^ La Jonquidre, too, had done
his best, even to the point of departing from his
original policy of allowing no soldier or Acadian to
take part with them. He had sent a body of troops
under La Come, an able partisan officer, to watch
^ M^moire du Roy pour aervir d'Inatruction au Comte de Raymond,
24 AvrU, 1761.
* Lettre commune de Desherbiers et Bigot au Ministre, 16 Ao^
1749.
* Longueuil au Ministre, 26 Avril, 1762.
108 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749^1764.
the English frontier; and in the same vessel was sent
a supply of ^* merchandise, guns, and munitions for
the savages and the Acadians who may take up arms
with them ; and the whole is sent under pretext of
trading in furs with the savages." ^ On another occa-
sion La Jonqui^re wrote : ^^ In order that the savages
may do their part courageously, a few Acadians,
dressed and painted in their way, could join them to
strike the £nglish. I cannot help consenting to
what these savages do, hecause we have our hands
tied [by the peace\ and so can do nothing ourselves.
Besides, I do not think that any inconvenience will
come of letting the Acadians mingle among them,
because if they [the Acadians] are captured, we shall
say that they acted of their own accord. "^ in other
words, he will encourage them to break the peace;
and then, by means of a falsehood, have them pun-
ished as felons. Many disguised Acadians did in
fact join the Indian war-parties ; and their doing so
was no secret to the English. " What we call here
an Indian war,'* wrote Hopson, successor of Com-
wallis, ^^is no other than a pretence for the French
to commit hostilities on His Majesty's subjects."
At length the Indians made peace, or pretended
to do so. The chief of Le Loutre's mission, who
called himself Major Jean-Baptiste Cope, came to
Halifax with a deputation of his tribe, and they all
affixed their totems to a solemn treaty. In the next
1 Bigot au Ministrey 1749.
* D^pSches de La Jonquih-t, 1 Mai, 1761. See Appendix B.
174^-1754.] LE LOUTRE. 109
summer they returned with ninety or a hundred
warriors, were weU entertained, presented with gifts,
and sent homeward in a schooner. On the way they
seized the vessel and murdered the crew. This is
told by Prdvost, intendant at Louisbourg, who does
not say that French instigation had any part in the
treachery.^ It is nevertheless certain that the Indians
were paid for this or some contemporary murder;
for Provost, writing just four weeks later, says:
^Last month the savages took eighteen English
scalps, and Monsieur Le Loutre was obliged to pay
them eighteen hundred livrei?, Acadian money,
which I have reimbursed him."^
From the first, the services of this zealous mis-
sionary had been beyond price. Provost testifies
that, though Comwallis does his best to induce the
Acadians to swear fidelity to King George, Le Loutre
keeps them in allegiance to King Louis, and
threatens to set hie Indians upon them unless they
declare against the English. "I have already," adds
Provost, "paid him 11,183 livres for his daily
expenses; and I never cease advising him to be as
economical as possible, and always to take care not
to compromise himself with the English Govern-
ment."' In consequence of "good service to religion
and the state," Le Loutre received a pension of eight
1 Provost au Miniitre, 12 Mars, 1763 ; Ibid., 17 JuilUt, 1763. Pr^
Tost was ordonnatew, or intendant, at Louisbourg. The treaty wiU
be foond in full in Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 6SS.
« PrSvost au Ministre, 16 Aoitt, 1763.
* Ibid., 22 JuiUet, 1760.
110 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1761
hundred livres, as did also Maillard, his brother mis-
sionary on Cape Breton. "The fear is," writes the
colonial minister to the governor of Louisbourg, " that
their zeal may carry them too far. Excite them to
keep the Indians in our interest, but do not let them
compromise us. Act always so as to make the
English appear as aggressors."^
All the Acadian clergy, in one degree or another,
seem to have used their influence to prevent the
inhabitants from taking the oath, and to persuade
them that they were still French subjects. Some
were noisy, turbulent, and defiant; others were too
tranquil to please the officers of the Crown. A mis-
sionary at AnnapoHs is mentioned as old, and there-
fore inefficient; while the cur^ at Grand Pr^, also an
elderly man, was too much inclined to confine himself
to his spiritual functions. It is everywhere apparent
that those who chose these priests, and sent them as
missionaries into a British province, expected them
to act as enemies of the British Crown. The maxim
is often repeated that duty to religion is inseparable
1 Le Ministre au Cotnte de Raymond, 21 JuiUet, 1752. It is curious
to compare these secret instructions, given by the minister to the
colonial officials, with a letter which the same minister, Rouill€,
wrote ostensibly to La Jonqui^re, but which was really meant for
the eye of the British minister at Versailles, Lord Albemarle, to
whom it was shown in proof of French good faith. It was after-
wards printed, along with other papers, in a small volume called
Pr€eis de$ FaiU, avec leurs Pihcet jutt{ficative8, which was sent by
the French government to all the courts of Europe to show that
the English alone were answerable for the war. The letter, it is
needless to say, breathes the highest sentiments of international
honor.
1749-1764.] RfeSENTMENT OF CORNWALLIS. Ill
from duty to the King of France. The Bishop of
Quebec desired the Abb^ de TIsle-Dieu to represent
to the Court the need of more missionaries to keep
the Acadians Catholic and French; but, he adds,
there is danger that they (the missionaries) will be
required to take an oath to do nothing contrary to
the interests of the King of Great Britain.^ It is a
wonder that such a pledge was not always demanded.
It was exacted in a few cases, notably in that of
Girard, priest at Cobequid, who, on charges of insti-
gating his flock to disaffection, had been sent prisoner
to Halifax, but released on taking an oath in the
above terms. Thereupon he wrote to Longueuil at
Quebec that his parishioners wanted to submit to the
English, and that he, having sworn to be true to the
British King, could not prevent them. " Though I
don't pretend to be a casuist," writes Longueuil, "I
could not help answering him that he is not obliged
to keep such an oath, and that he ought to labor in
all zeal to preserve and increase the number of the
faithful." Girard, to his credit, preferred to leave
the colony, and retired to Isle St. Jean.*
Comwallis soon discovered to what extent the
clergy stirred their flocks to revolt; and he wrote
angrily to the Bishop of Quebec : " Was it you who
sent Le Loutre as a missionary to the Micmacs ? and
is it for their good that he excites these wretches to
1 Llsle-Dieu, MSmoire iur VAat actuel des Misnons, 1768
(17641).
' Longueuil au Minittre, 27 Avril, 1762.
112 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1740-1764.
practise their cruelties against those who have shown
them every kindness? The conduct of the priests of
Acadia has been such that by command of His
Majesty I have published an Order declaring that if
any one of them presumes to exercise his functions
without my express permission he shall be dealt
with according to the laws of England."^
Tlie English, bound by treaty to allow the Acadians
the exercise of their religion, at length conceived the
idea of replacing the French priests by others to be
named by the Pope at the request of the British gov-
ernment. This, becoming known to the French,
greatly alarmed them, and the intendant at Louis-
bourg wrote to the minister that the matter required
serious attention.' It threatened, in fact, to rob
tliem of their chief agents of intrigue; but their
alarm proved needless, as the plan was not carried
into execution.
The French officials would have been better pleased
had tlie conduct of Comwallis been such as to aid
their efforts to alienate the Acadians ; and one writer,
while confessing the ^^ favorable treatment" of the
English towards tlie inhabitants, denounces it as a
snare.' If so, it was a snare intended simply to
reconcile them to English rule. Nor was it without
effect. ^^ We must give up altogether the idea of an
1 CornwattU to (he Bishop of Quebec, 1 December, 1740.
> Daudin, pr^re, h PrSrott, 23 Octobre, 1753. Pr^lfott am
U Novembre, 1753.
> Mimoire k pritenter m h Cowr, 1763w
1749-1764.] UNWILLING EMIGRANTS. 118
insurrection in Acadia," writes an officer of Cape
Breton. ^^The Acadians cannot be trusted; they are
controlled by fear of the Indians, which leads them
to breathe French sentiments, even when their inclina-
tions are English. They will yield to their interests ;
and the English will make it impossible that they should
either hurt them or serve us, unless we take measures
different from those we have hitherto pursued." ^
During all this time, constant efforts were made to
stimulate Acadian emigration to French territory,
and thus to strengthen the French frontier. In
this work the chief agent was Le Loutre. ^'This
priest," says a French writer of the time, ^^ urged the
people of Les Mines, Port Royal [Annapolis]^ and
other places, to come and join the French, and
promised to all, in the name of the governor, to settle
and support them for three years, and even indemnify
them for any losses they might incur; threatening if
they did not do as he advised, to abandon them,
deprive them of their priests, have their wives and
children carried off, and their property laid waste by
the Indians."' Some passed over the isthmus to the
shores of the gulf, and others made their way to the
Strait of Canseau. Vessels were provided to convey
them, in the one case to Isle St. Jean, now Prince
Eldward Island, and in the other to Isle Rojrale,
called by the English, Cape Breton. Some were
eager to go; some went with reluctance; some would
1 Roma au Minittre, 11 Mars, 1750.
> MSmmres sur le Canada, 1740-1760.
VOL. L — 8
114 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1761
scarcely be persuaded to go at all. ^^They leave
their homes with great regret," reports the governor
of Isle St. Jean, speaking of the people of Cobequid,
^^and they began to move their luggage only when
the savages compelled them."^ These savages were
the flock of Abb^ Le Loutre, who was on the spot to
direct the emigration. Two thousand Acadians are
reported to have left the peninsula before the end of
1751, and many more followed within the next two
years. Nothing could exceed the misery of a great
part of these emigrants, who had left perforce most
of their effects behind. They became disheartened
and apathetic. The intendant at Louisbourg says
that they will not take the trouble to clear the land,
and that some of them live, like Indians, under huts
of spruce-branches.^ The governor of Isle St. Jean
declares that they are dying of hunger.^ Girard, the
priest who had withdrawn to this island rather than
break his oath to the English, writes: ^^Many of
them cannot protect themselves day or night from
the severity of the cold. Most of the children are
entirely naked ; and when I go into a house they are
all crouched in the ashes, close to the fire. They
run off and hide themselves, without shoes, stock-
ings, or shirts. They are not all reduced to this
extremity, but nearly all are in want."^ Mortality
^ Bonaventure h De$herbier$, 26 Juin, 1761.
* PrAfOit au Ministre, 26 Novembre, 1760.
' Bonaventure, ut supra.
^ Girard h (Bonaventure f), 27 Octobre, 1768L
1749-1764.] FORBEARANCE OF CORNWALLIS. 115
among them was great, and would have been greater
but for rations supplied by the French government.
During these proceedings, the English governor,
Comwallis, seems to have justified the character of
good temper given him by Horace Walpole. His
attitude towards the Acadians remained on the
whole patient and conciliatory. "My friends," he
replied to a deputation of them asking a general per-
mission to leave the province, " I am not ignorant of
the fact that every means has been used to alienate
the hearts of the French subjects of His Britannic
Majesty. Great advantages have been promised you
elsewhere, and you have been made to imagine that
your religion was in danger. Threats even have
been resorted to in order to induce you to remove to
French territory. The savages are made use of to
molest you; they are to cut the throats of all who
remain in their native country, attached to their own
interests and faithful to the Government. You know
tiiat certain officers and missionaries, who came from
Canada last autumn, have been the cause of all our
trouble during the winter. Their conduct has been
horrible, without honor, probity, or conscience.
Their aim is to embroil you with the Government.
I will not believe that they are authorized to do so
by the Court of France, that being contrary to good
faith and the friendship established between the two
Crowns. "
What foundation there was for this amiable confi-
dence in the Court of Versailles has been seen already.
116 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1764.
"When you declared your desire to submit your-
selves to another Government," pursues ComwalliB,
" our determination was to hinder nobody f ropi fol-
lowing what he imagined to be his interest. We
know that a forced service is worth nothing, and that
a subject compelled to be so against his will is not
far from being an enemy. We confess, however,
that your determination to go gives us pain. We
are aware of your industry and temperance, and that
you are not addicted to any vice or debauchery.
This province is your country. You and your
fathers have cultivated it; naturally you ought your-
selves to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Such was
the design of the King, our master. You know that
we have followed his orders. You know that we
have done everything to secure to you not only the
occupation of your lands, but the ownership of them
forever. We have given you also every possible
assurance of the free and public exercise of the
Roman Catholic religion. But I declare to you
frankly that, according to our laws, nobody can pos-
sess lands or houses in the province who shall refuse
to take the oath of allegiance to his King when
required to do so. You know very well that there
are ill-disposed and mischievous persons among you
who corrupt the others. Your inexperience, your
ignorance of the affairs of government, and your habit
of following the counsels of those who have not your
real interests at heart, make it an easy matter to
seduce you. In your petitions you ask for a general
1749-.1754.] HOPSON. 117
leave to quit the province. The only manner in which
you can do so is to follow the regulations already
established, and provide yourselves with our pass-
port. And we declare that nothing shall prevent us
from giving such passports to all who ask for them,
the moment peace and tranquillity are re-estalh
Ushed.*'^ He declares as his reason for not giving
them at once, that on crossing the frontier '^you will
have to pass the French detachments and savages
assembled there, and that they compel all the inhabit-
ants who go there to take up arms" against the
English. How well this reason was founded will
soon appear.
Hopson, the next governor, described by the
French themselves as a ^^ mild and peaceable officer, "
was no less considerate in his treatment of the
Acadians; and at the end of 1752 he issued the fol-
lowing order to his military subordinates : '^ You are
to look on the French inhabitants in the same light
as the rest of His Majesty's subjects, as to the pro-
tection of the laws and government; for which reason
nothing is to be taken from them by force, or any
price set upon their goods but what they themselves
agree to. And if at any time the inhabitants should
obstinately refuse to comply with what His Majesty's
service may require of them, you are not to redress
1 The aboTe passages are from two addresses of Comwallis,
read to the Acadian deputies in April and May, 1760. The com-
bined extracts here given convey the spirit of the whole. See
PMic DocumentM of Nova Scotia, 186-190.
tl8 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1751
youiself by military force or in any unlawful manner,
but to lay the case before the Governor and wait his
orders thereon."^ Unfortunately, the mild rule of
Cornwallis and Hopson was not always maintained
under their successor, Lawrence.
Louis Joseph Le Loutre, vicar-general of Acadia
and missionary to the Micmacs, was the most con-
spicuous person in the province, and more than any
other man was answerable for the miseries that over-
whelmed it The sheep of which he was the shepherd
dwelt, at a day's journey from Halifax, by the banks
of the river Shubenacadie, in small cabins of logs,
mixed with wigwams of birch-bark. They were not
a docile flock; and to manage them needed address,
energy, and money, — with all of which the mis-
sionary was provided. He fed their traditional dis-
like of the English, and fanned their fanaticism, bom
of the villanous counterfeit of Christianity which he
and his predecessors had imposed on them. Thus he
contrived to use them on the one hand to murder the
English, and on the other to terrify the Acadians;
yet not without cost to the French government; for
they had learned the value of money, and, except
when their blood was up, were slow to take scalps
without pay. Le Loutre was a man of boundless
egotism, a violent spirit of domination, an intense
hatred of the English, and a fanaticism that stopped
at nothing. Towards the Acadians he was a despot;
and this simple and superstitious people, extremely
1 Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 107.
17i»-17M.] LE LOUTRE. 119
susceptible to the influence of their priests, trembled
before him. He was scarcely less masterful in his
dealings with the Acadian clergy ; and, aided by his
quality of the bishop's vicar-general, he dragooned
even the unwilling into aiding his schemes. Three
successive governors of New France thought him
invaluable, yet feared the impetuosity of his zeal,
and vainly tried to restrain it within safe bounds.
The bishop, while approving his objects, thought his
medicines too violent, and asked in a tone of reproof:
**Is it right for you to refuse the Acadians the sacra-
ments, to threaten that they shall be deprived of the
services of a priest, and that the savages shall treat
tiiem as enemies?"^ "Nobody," says a French
Catholic contemporary, "was more fit than he to
carry discord and desolation into a country."' Com-
wallis called him "a good-for-nothing scoundrel,"
and offered a hundred pounds for his head.^
The authorities at Halifax, while exasperated by
tiie perfidy practised on them, were themselves not
always models of international virtue. They seized
a French vessel in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, on the
charge — probably true — that she was carrying arms
and ammunition to the Acadians and Indians. A
less defensible act was the capture of the armed brig
^ L'JSveque de Q^^c h Le LmUre ; tranBlation in Public Docw-
wtenis of Nova Scotia, 240.
s Mhnoires sur U Canada, 1740-1760.
* On Le Loutre, compare Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 178-
180, note, with authorities there cited ; N Y. Col, Does., z. 11 ;
Memoires sur le Canada, 1740-1760 (Quebec, 1838).
120 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1764
^St. Francois/' laden with supplies for a fort lately
re-established by the French, at the mouth of the
river St. John, on ground claimed by both nations.
Captain Rous, a New England officer commanding a
frigate in the royal navy, opened fire on the "St.
Franqois," took her after a short cannonade, and
carried her into Halifax, where she was condemned
by the court. Several captures of small craft, accused
of illegal acts, were also made by the English.
These proceedings, being all of an overt nature, gave
the officers of Louis XV. precisely what they wanted,
— an occasion for uttering loud complaints, and
denouncing the English as breakers of the peace.
But the movement most alarming to the French
was the English occupation of Beaubassin, — an act
perfectly lawful in itself, since, without reasonable
doubt, the place was within the limits of Acadia, and
therefore on English ground.^ Beaubassin was a
considerable settlement on the isthmus that joins the
Acadian peninsula to the mainland. Northwest of
the settlement lay a wide marsh, through which ran
a stream called the Missaguash, some two miles
beyond which rose a hill called Beaus^jour. On and
near this hill were stationed the troops and Cana-
dians sent under Boishdbert and La Come to watch
the English frontier. This French force excited
disaffection among the Acadians through all the
1 La Jonqui^re himself admits that he thought so. " Cette partie
Ik €tant, k ce que je crois, d^pendante de TAcadie." — La Jonquikre
au Ministre, 3 Octobre, 1760.
17i»-1754.] BEAUBASSIN. 121
neighboring districts, and constantly helped them to
emigrate. Comwallis therefore resolved to send an
English force to the spot; and accordingly, towards
the end of April, 1750, Major Lawrence landed at
Beaubassin with four hundred men. News of their
approach had come before them, and Le Loutre was
here with his Micmacs, mixed with some Acadians
whom he had persuaded or bullied to join him.
Resolved that the people of Beaubassin should not
live under English influence, he now with his own
hand set fire to the parish church, while his white
and red adherents burned the houses of the inhabit-
ants, and thus compelled them to cross to the French
side of the river. ^ This was the first forcible removal
of the Acadians. It was as premature as it was
violent; since Lawrence, being threatened by La
Come, whose force was several times greater than
his own, presently re-embarked. In the following
September he returned with seventeen small vessels
and about seven hundred men, and again attempted
to land on the strand of Beaubassin. La Jonquidre
says that he could only be resisted indirectly, because
he was on the English side of the river. This
1 It has been erroneously stated that Beaubassin was burned
bj its own inhabitants. " Laloutre, ayant yu que les Acadiens ne
paroissoient pas fort presses d'abandonner leurs biens, ayoit lui-
mtoe mis le feu k F]feglise, et Tavoit fait mettre aux maisons des
habitants par quelques-uns de ceux qu'il avoit gagn^s," etc.
M^moirtM aw le Canada, 1740-1760. "Les sauvages y mirent le
feu." Pr^is dea Faita, 85. "Les sauvages mirent le fen aux
maisons." Pr€voat au Miniatre, 22 Juillet, 1750.
122 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1764.
indirect resistance was undertaken by Le Loutre,
who had thrown up a breastwork along the shore
and manned it with his Indians and his painted and
befeathered Acadians. Nevertheless the English
landed, and, with some loss, drove out the defenders.
Le Loutre himself seems not to have been among
them; but they kept up for a time a helter-skelter
fight, encouraged by two other missionaries, Grermain
and Laleme, who were near being caught by the
English.^ Lawrence quickly routed them, took
possession of the cemetery, and prepared to fortify
himself. The village of Beaubassin, consisting, it
is said, of a hundred and forty houses, had been
burned in the spring; but there were still in the
neighborhood, on the English side, many hamlets
and farms, with bams full of grain and hay.
Le Loutre 's Indians now threatened to plunder
and kill the inhabitants if they did not take
arms against the English. Few complied, and the
greater part fled to the woods.' On this the Indians
and their Acadian allies set the houses and bams on
fire, and laid waste the whole district, leaving the
inhabitants no choice but to seek food and shelter
with the French.*
1 La Valli^re, Journal de ee gut s'ut passi h CheniUm [Chignecto]
et auire$ parties des Frontihres de PAcadie, 1760-1761. La VaUi^
was an officer on the spot.
> Privott au Mintstre, 27 Septembre, 1760.
> ''Les sauTages et Accadiens mirent le fen dans tontes lef
maisons et granges, pleines de bled et de fourrages, ce qui a caose
one grande disette." — La Vallitre, ut supra.
1749-1764.] MURDER OF HOWE. 123
The English fortified themselves on a low hill by
the edge of the marsh, planted palisades, built bar-
racks, and named the new work Fort Lawrence.
Slight skirmishes between them and the French were
frequent. Neither party respected the dividing line
of the Missaguash, and a petty warfare of aggression
and reprisal began, and became chronic. Before the
end of the autumn there was an atrocious act of
treachery. Among the English officers was Captain
Edward Howe, an intelligent and agreeable person,
who spoke French fluently, and had been long sta-
tioned in the province. Le Loutre detested him,
dreading his influence over the Acadians, by many
of whom he was known and liked. One morning,
at about eight o'^clock, the inmates of Fort Lawrence
saw what seemed an officer from Beaus^jour, carrying
a flag, and followed by several men in uniform, wad-
ing through the sea of grass that stretched beyond
the Missaguash. When the tide was out, this river
was but an ugly trench of reddish mud gashed across
the face of the marsh, with a thread of half-fluid
slime lazily crawling along the bottom ; but at high
tide it was filled to the brim with an opaque torrent
that would have overflowed, but for the dikes thrown
up to confine it. Behind the dike on the farther
bank stood the seeming officer, waving his flag in
sign that he desired a parley. He was in reality no
officer, but one of Le Loutre 's Indians in disguise,
fitienne Le B&tard, or, as others say, the great chief,
Jean-Baptiste Cope. Howe, carrying a white flag,
124 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [174d-1754.
and accompanied by a few officers and men, went
towards the river to hear what he had to say. As
they drew near, his looks and language excited their
suspicion. But it was too late; for a number of
Indians, who had hidden behind the dike during the
night, fired upon Howe across the stream, and mor-
tally wounded him. They continued their fire on his
companions, but could not prevent them from carry-
ing the dying man to the fort. The French officers,
indignant at this villany, did not hesitate to charge
it upon Le Loutre ; " for," says one of them, " what is
not a wicked priest capable of doing?" But Le
Loutre's brother missionary, Maillard, declares that
it was purely an effect of religious zeal on the part ol
the Micmacs, who, according to him, bore a deadly
grudge against Howe because, fourteen years before,
he had spoken words disrespectful to the H0I3
Virgin.^ Maillard adds that the Indians were much
pleased with what they had done. Finding, how-
ever, that they could effect little against the EnglisK
troops, they changed their field of action, repaired to
the outskirts of Halifax, murdered about thirty
settlers, and carried off eight or ten prisoners.
Strong reinforcements came from Canada. The
^ Maillard, Les Missions Micmaques, On the murder of Howe,
Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 194, 196, 210; M€moires sur U
Canada, 1749-1760, where it is said that Le Loutre was present at
the deed ; La Valli^re, Journal, who says that some Acadians took
part in it; DSpiches de La Jonquikre, who says "les aauvages de
KAbM le Loutre I'ont tu^ par trahison ; *' and Prfitost au Ministre
27 Octobre, 1760.
1740-1764.] HARSHNESS OF LE LOUTRE. 126
French began a fort on the hill of Beaus^jour, and
the Acadians were required to work at it with no
compensation but rations. They were thinly clad,
some had neither shoes nor stockings, and winter was
begun. They became so dejected that it was found
absolutely necessary to give them wages enough to
supply their most pressing needs. In the following
season Fort Beaus^jour was in a state to receive a
garrison. It stood on the crown of the hill, and a
vast panorama stretched below and aroimd it. In
front lay the Bay of Chignecto, winding along the
fertile shores of Chipody and Memeramcook. Far
on the right spread the great Tantemar marsh; on
the left lay the marsh of the Missaguash; and on a
knoll beyond it, not three miles distant, the red flag
of England waved over the palisades of Fort
Lawrence, while hills wrapped in dark forests
bounded the horizon.
How the homeless Acadians from Beaubassin lived
through the winter is not very clear. They probably
found shelter at Chipody and its neighborhood,
where there were thriving settlements of their
countrymen. Le Loutre, fearing that they would
return to their lands and submit to the English, sent
some of them to Isle St. Jean. "They refused to
go,'' says a French writer; "but he compelled them
at last, by threatening to make the Indians pillage
them, carry ofE their wives and children, and even
kill them before their eyes. Nevertheless he kept
about him such as were most submissive to his
126 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754
will/'^ In the spring after the English occupied
Beaubassin, La Jonquidre issued a strange proclama-
tion. It commanded all Acadians to take forthwith
an oath of fidelity to the King of France, and to
enroll themselves in the French militia, on pain of
being treated as rebels.^ Three years after, Law-
rence, who then governed the province, proclaimed
in his turn that all Acadians who had at any time
sworn fidelity to the King of England, and who
should be found in arms against him, would be
treated as criminals.^ Thus were these unfortunates
ground between the upper and nether mill-stones.
Le Loutre replied to this proclamation of Lawrence
by a letter in which he outdid himself. He declared
that any of the inhabitants who had crossed to the
French side of the line, and who should presume to
return to the English, would be treated as enemies
by his Micmacs ; and in the name of these, his Indian
adherents, he demanded that the entire eastern half
of the Acadian peninsula, including the ground on
which Fort Lawrence stood, should be at once made
over to their sole use and sovereign ownership,* —
"which being read and considered," says the wcord
of the Halifax Council, ^^the contents appeared too
insolent and absurd to be answered.'*
1 MimoireB sur U Canada, 1749-1760.
' Ordonnance du 12 Avril, 1761.
* jScrit donni aux Habitants r€fugi€8 h. Beaus^jour, 10 AoAt, 1764.
* Copie de la Lettre d€ M. VAhh^ Le Loutre, Pretre Missionnaire
de$ Sauvages de VAccadie, a M. Lawrence a Halifax, 2& AotU, 1754.
There if a translation in Public Documents of Nova Scotia,
1749-1754.] COMPLAINTS OF ACADIANS. 127
The number of Acadians who had crossed the line
and were collected about Beaus^jour was now large.
Their countrymen of Chipody began to find them a
burden, and they lived chiefly on government rations.
Le Loutre had obtained fifty thousand livres from
the court in order to dike in, for their use, the fertile
marshes of Memeramcook; but the relief was distant,
and the misery pressing. They complained that they
had been lured over the line by false assuittnces, and
ihey applied secretly to the English authorities to
learn if they would be allowed to return to their
homes. The answer was that they might do so with
full enjoyment of religion and property, if they
would take a simple oath of fidelity and loyalty to
the King of Great Britain, qualified by an oral inti-
mation that they would not be required for the
present to bear arms.^ When Le Loutre heard this,
he mounted the pulpit, broke into fierce invectives,
threatened the terrified people with excommunica-
tion, and preached himself into a state of exhaustion.'
The military commandant at Beaus^jour used gentler
means of prevention; and the Acadians, unused for
generations to think or act for themselves, remained
restless, but indecisive, waiting till fate should settle
for them the question, under which king?
Meanwhile, for the past three years, the commis-
sioners appointed under the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle
1 PMie Documents of Nova Scotia, 205, 209.
* Compare Mimoires, 1749-1760, and Public Documents of Nova
Scotia, 229, 230.
128 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1764.
to settle the question of boundaries between France
and England in America had been in session at Paris,
waging interminable war on paper; La Galissonidre
and Silhouette for France, Shirley and Mildmay for
England. By the treaty of Utrecht, Acadia belonged
to England; but what was Acadia? According to
the English commissioners, it comprised not only the
peninsula now called Nova Scotia, but all the im-
mense tract of land between the river St. Lawrence
on the north, the gulf of the same name on the east,
the Atlantic on the south, and New England on the
west.^ The French commissioners, on their part,
maintained that the name Acadia belonged of right
only to about a twentieth part of this territory, and
that it did not even cover the whole of the Acadian
peninsula, but only its southern coast, with an
adjoining belt of barren wilderness.. When the
French owned Acadia, they gave it boundaries as
comprehensive as those claimed for it by the English
commissioners ; now that it belonged to a rival, they
cut it down to a paring of its former self. The
denial that Acadia included the whole peninsula was
dictated by the need of a winter communication
between Quebec and Cape Breton, which was pos-
sible only with the eastern portions in French hands.
So new was this denial that even La Galissonidre
1 The commiMion of De Monts, in 1608, defines Acadia as ex-
tending from the fortieth to the forty-sixth degrees of latitude, —
that is, from central New Brunswick to southern Pennijlyania.
Neither party cared to produce the document.
1749-1764.] THE BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 129
hiniflelf, tihe foremost in making it, had declared
witihont reservation two years before that Acadia was
Hie entire peninsula.^ "If," says a writer on the
question, " we had to do with a nation more tractable,
less grasping, and more conciliatory, it would be
well to insist also that Halifax should be given up to
us." He thinks that, on the whole, it would be well
to make the demand in any case, in order to gain
some other point by yielding this one.^ It is curious
that while denying that the coimtry was Acadia, the
French invariably called the inhabitants Acadians.
Lmnmerable public documents, commissions, grants,
treaties, edicts, signed by French kings and minis-
ters, had recognized Acadia as extending over New
Brunswick and a part of Maine. Four censuses of
Acadia while it belonged to the French had recog-
nized the mainland as included in it; and so do also
the early French maps. Its prodigious shrinkage
was simply the consequence of its possession by an
alien.
Other questions of limits, more important and
equally perilous, called loudly for solution. What
line should separate Canada and her western depend-
encies from the British colonies ? Various principles
of demarcation were suggested, of which the most
prominent on the French side was a geographical
1 ''L'Acadie suiyant ses anciennes limites est la presquisle
born^ par son isthme." La Galissonnih'e au Mintstref 25 Juillet,
1749. The English commissioners were, of course, ignorant of
thif admiasion.
« Mimoire de VAhb^de VIsU-Dieu, 1763 (1764 ?).
VOL. I. — 9
180 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754
one. AU countries watered by streams falling into
the St Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi
were to belong to her. This would have planted her
in the heart of New York and along the crests of the
Alleghanies, giving her all the interior of the conti-
nent, and leaving nothing to England but a strip of
sea-coast. Yet in view of what France had achieved;
of the patient gallantry of her explorers, the zeal of
her missionaries, the adventurous hardihood of her
bushrangers, revealing to civilized mankind the
existence of this wilderness world, whUe her rivals
plodded at their workshops, their farms, or their
fisheries, — in view of all this, her pretensions were
moderate and reasonable compared with those of
England. The treaty of Utrecht had declared the
Iroquois, or Five Nations, to be British subjects;
therefore it was insisted that all countries conquered
by them belonged to the British Crown. But what
was an Lroquois conquest? The Iroquois rarely
occupied the countries they overran. Their military
expeditions were mere raids, great or small. Some-
times, as in the case of the Hurons, they made a soli-
tude and called it peace ; again, as in the case of the
Illinois, they drove off the occupants of the soil, who
returned after the invaders were gone. But the
range of their war-parties was prodigious; and the
English laid claim to every mountain, forest, or
prairie where an Iroquois had taken a scalp. This
would give them not only the country between the
Alleghanies and the Mississippi, but also that
1749-1754.] FAILURE OF COMMISSION. 181
between Lake Huron and the Ottawa, thus reducing
Canada to the patch on the American map now
represented by the province of Quebec, — or rather,
fay a part of it, since the extension of Acadia to the
St Lawrence would cut off the present counties of
Gaspd, Rimouski, and Bonaventure. Indeed, among
the advocates of British claims there were those who
denied that France had any rights whatever on the
south side of the St. Lawrence.^ Such being the
attitude of the two contestants, it was plain that
there was no resort but the last argument of kings.
Peace must be won with the sword.
The commissioners at Paris broke up their ses-
sions, leaving as the monument of their toils four
quarto volumes of allegations, arguments, and docu-
mentary proofis.' Out of the discussion rose also a
swarm of fugitive publications in French, English,
and Spanish; for the question of American bounda-
^ Hie extent of British claims is best shown on two maps of
the time, Mitchell's Map of the British and French Dominions in
Smik Awuriea and Huske's New and Accurate Map of North
America ; both are in the British Museum. Dr. John MitcheU, in
hit Coniesi in America (London, 1757), pushes the English claim to
its utmost extreme, and denies that the French were rightful
owners of anything in North America except the town of Quebec
and the trading-post of Tadoussac. Besides the claim founded
on the subjection of the Iroquois to the British Crown, the Eng-
lish somewhat inconsistently advanced others founded on titles
obtained by treaty from these same tribes, and others still, founded
oo the original grants of some of the colonies, which ran indefi-
nitely westward across the continent.
* M^mmreM des Commissaires de Sa Majesty Trhs Chritienne et de
onx de Sa MajtMt€ Brittanique, Paris, 1755. Several editions
132 CONFLICT FOR ACADIA. [1749-1754.
ries had become European. There was one among
them worth notice from its amusing absurdity. It is
an elaborate disquisition, under the title of Boman
politique^ by an author faithful to the traditions of
European diplomacy, and inspired at the same time
by the new philosophy of the school of Rousseau.
He insists that the balance of power must be pre-
served in America as well as in Europe, because
"Nature," "the aggrandizement of the human soul,"
and the "felicitj'^ of man" are unanimous in demand-
ing it. The English colonies are more populous and
wealthy than the French; therefore the French
should have more land, to keep the balance. Nature,
the human soul, and the felicity of man require that
France should own all the country beyond the AUe-
ghanies and all Acadia but a strip of the south coast,
according to the "sublime negotiations" of the
French commissioners, of which the writer declares
himself a "religious admirer."^
We know already that France had used means
sharper than negotiation to vindicate her claim to the
interior of the continent; had marched to the sources
of the Ohio to intrench herself there, and hold the
passes of the West against all comers. It remains to
see how she fared in her bold enterprise.
^ Baman politique sur V£tat present des Affaires de VAm&ique
(Amflterdam, 1766). For eztracta from French Docamente, set
Appendix B.
CHAPTER V.
1763, 1754.
WASHINGTON.
Thb Frehoh ogoupt the Soubces of the Ohio : theib Suf-
vsBiiros. — FoBT Le B<EnF. — Leoabdeub de Saint-Piebbb. —
Mission of Washington. — Robebt Dinwiddie : he op^
POSES THE Fbench ; his Dispute with the Buboesses ;
HIS Enbbgt ; HIS Appeals fob Help. — Fobt Duquesne.
— Death of Jumonyille. — Washington at the Gbeat
Meadows. — Coulon de Villiebs. — Fobt Necessity.
Towards the end of spring the vanguard of the
expedition sent by Duquesne to occupy the Ohio
landed at Presqu'isle, where Erie now stands. This
route to the Ohio, far better than that which C^loron
had followed, was a new discovery to the French;
and Duquesne calls the harbor ^^the finest in nature."
Here they built a fort of squared chestnut logs, and
when it was finished they cut a road of several
leagues through the woods to Rividre aux Boeufs,
now French Creek. At the farther end of this road
they began another wooden fort and called it Fort Le
Bceuf. Thence, when the water was high, they
could descend French Creek to the Alleghany, and
follow that stream to the main current of the Ohio.
184 WASHINGTON. [1753.
It was heavy work to cany the cumbrous load of
baggage across the portages. Much of it is said to
have been superfluous, consisting of velvets, silks,
and other useless and costly articles, sold to the King
at enormous prices as necessaries of the expedition.^
The weight of the task fell on the Canadians, who
worked with cheerful hardihood, and did their part
to admiration. Marin, commander of the expedition,
a gruff, choleric old man of sixty-three, but full of
force and capacity, spared himself so little that he
was struck down with dysentery, and, refusing to be
sent home to Montreal, was before long in a dying
state. His place was taken by Pdan, of whose
private character there is little good to be said, but
whose conduct as an officer was such that Duquesne
calls him a prodigy of talents, resources, and zeal.*
The subalterns deserve no such praise. They dis-
liked the service, and made no secret of their discon-
tent. Rumors of it filled Montreal; and Duquesne
wrote to Marin: "I am surprised that you have not
told me of this change. Take note of the sullen and
discouraged faces about you. This sort are worse
than useless. Rid yourself of them at once; send
them to Montreal, that I may make an example of
them."* Pdan wrote at the end of September that
Marin was in extremity; and the governor, disturbed
^ Ponchoty Mhnoires sur la demikre Guerre de PAm^que Septeth
trioneUe, i. 8.
' Duquesne au Ministre, 2 Novembre, 1753 ; compare MSmoire pour
Michel-Jean Hugues Pian.
• Duquesne h Marin, 27 Aok, 1753.
1768.] EFFECTS OF EXPEDITION. 135
ftnd alarmed, for he knew the value of the sturdy old
officer, looked anxiously for a successor. He chose
another veteran, Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, who had
just returned from a journey of exploration towards
the Rocky Mountains,^ and whom Duquesne now
ordered to the Ohio.
Meanwhile the effects of the expedition had already
justified it. At first the Indians of the Ohio had
shown a bold front. One of them, a chief whom the
English called the Half-King, came to Fort Le Boeuf
and ordered the French to leave the country, but
was received by Marin with such contemptuous
haughtiness that he went home shedding tears of
rage and mortification. The western tribes were
daunted. The Miamis, but yesterday fast friends of
the English, made humble submission to the French,
and offered them two English scalps to signalize their
repentance; while the Sacs, Pottawattamies, and
Ojibwas were loud in professions of devotion.^ Even
the Iroquois, Delawares, and Shawanoes on the Alle-
ghany had come to the French camp and offered their
help in carrying the baggage. It needed but perse-
verance and success in the enterprise to win over
every tribe from the mountains to the Mississippi.
To accomplish this and to curb the English, Duquesne
had planned a third fort, at the junction of French
^ Memoire au Journal sommaire du Voyage de Jacquee Legardeur de
Saint-Pierre.
* RapporU de ConeeUs avee les Sauvages h Montreal, Juillet, 1753.
Duquetne an Ministre, 81 Octobre, 1753. Letter of Dr. Shuckburgh Id
AT. Y. Col. Does,, vL 806.
186 WASHINGTON. [176a
Creek with the Alleghany, or at some point lower
down; then, leaving the three posts well garrisoned,
Pdan was to descend the Ohio with the whole remain-
ing force, impose terror on the wavering tribes, and
complete their conversion. Both plans were thwarted ;
the fort was not built, nor did P^an descend the
Ohio. Fevers, lung diseases, and scurvy made such
deadly havoc among troops and Canadians that the
dying Marin saw with bitterness that his work must
be left half done. Three hundred of the best men
were kept to garrison Forts Presqu'isle and Le BoBuf ;
and then, as winter approached, the rest were sent
back to Montreal. When they arrived, the gov-
ernor was shocked at their altered looks. ^^I
reviewed them, and could not help being touched
by the pitiable state to which fatigues and expos-
ures had reduced them. Past all doubt, if these
emaciated figures had gone down the Ohio as in-
tended, the river would have been strewn with
corpses, and the evil-disposed savages would not have
failed to attack the survivors, seeing that they were
but spectres."^
Legardeur de Saint-Pierre arrived at the end of
autumn, and made his quarters at Fort Le Bceuf.
The surroimding forests had dropped their leaves,
and in gray and patient desolation bided the coming
winter. Chill rains drizzled over the gloomy "clear-
^ Duquesne au Mtnistret 29 Novembref 1763. On this expedition,
compare the letter of Duquesne in N. Y. Col. Docs., z. 265, and the
deposition of Stephen Coffen, IbiJ., vi. 835.
176S.] FORT LE BCEUF. 187
ing/' and drenched the palisades and log-built bar-
neks, raw from the axe. Buried in the wilderness,
Hie militaiy exiles resigned themselves as they might
to months of monotonous solitude ; when, just after
sunset on the eleventh of December, a tall youth
came out of the forest on horseback, attended by a
companion much older and rougher than himself,
and followed by several Indians and four or five
white men with pack-horses. Officers from the
fort went out to meet the strangers; and, wading
through mud and sodden snow, they entered at the
gate. On the next day the young leader of the
party, with the help of an interpreter, for he spoke
no French, had an interview with the commandant,
and gave him a letter from Governor Dinwiddie.
Saint-Pierre and the officer next in rank, who knew
a little English, took it to another room to study
it at their ease; and in it, all unconsciously, they
read a name destined to stand one of the noblest
in the annals of mankind; for it introduced Major
George Washington, Adjutant-General of the Vir-
ginia militia.^
Dinwiddle, jealously watchful of French aggres-
sion, bad learned through traders and Indians that a
strong detachment from Canada had entered the
territories of the King of England, and built forts on
Lake Erie and on a branch of the Ohio. He wrote
to challenge the invasion and summon the invaders
to withdraw; and he could find none so fit to bear
^ Jcwmal of Major Washington. Journal of Mr, Christopher Gist
188 WASHINGTON. [1763.
his message as a young man of twenty-one. It was
this rough Scotchman who launched Washington on
his illustrious career.
Washington set out for the trading -station of the
Ohio Company on Will's Creek ; and thence, at the
middle of November, struck into the wilderness with
Christopher Gist as a guide, Yanbraam, a Dutchman,
as French interpreter, Davison, a trader, as Indian
interpreter, and four woodsmen as servants. They
went to the forks of the Ohio, and then down the
river to Logstown, the Chiningu^ of Cdloron de
Bienville. There Washington had various parleys
with the Indians ; and thence, after vexatious delays,
he continued his journey towards Fort Le Boeuf,
accompanied by the friendly chief called the Half-
King* and by three of his tribesmen. For several
days they followed the traders' path, pelted with
imceasing rain and snow, and came at last to the old
Indian town of Venango, where French Creek enters
the Alleghany. Here there was an English trading-
house; but the French had seized it, raised their flag
over it, and turned it into a military outpost.^ Jon-
caire was in command, with two subalterns; and
nothing could exceed their civility. They invited
the strangers to supper; and, says Washington, ^Hhe
wine, as they dosed themselves pretty plentifully
1 Marin had sent sixty men in Aug^t to seize the house, which
belonged to the trader Fraser. IMpeches de Duquesne, They car-
ried off two men whom thej found here. Letter of Fraser in
Colonial Records of Pa., t. ^9,
ua] DEnnnDiES letteb. 1S9
widi it» mxm buokfaed tbe vestxmmt wlikli at first
a|ipeued in iheir eonTeisaiiom azmI gmxe a license to
titnoT tiGDgiies to rexeal tikdr sentiments mon^ ineelj.
Thej told me tlttt it vms tiieir absolnte design to
tike posseasion of the Ohio. and. by G — ^ they
would do it; for tliat although they were sensible the
EngiiBh could laise two men for their one^ yet they
knew their modons were too slow and dilatonr to
prevent any undertaking of theirs.'''^
With all their ciTility, the Fiench officers did
their best to entice away Washington's Indians ; and
it was wi& extreme difficulty that he could peisuade
them to go with him. Through marshes and swamps,
forests choked with snow, and dit^Uv:hed with inces-
sant rain, they toiled on for four days more, till the
wooden walls of Fort Le Bceuf appeared at last, sur-
rounded by fields studded thick with stumps, and
half-encircled by the chill current of French Creek,
along the banks of which lay more than two hundred
canoes, ready to cany troops in the spring. Wash-
ington describes Legardeur de Saint-Pierre as ^'an
elderly gentleman with much the air of a soldier/*
The letter sent him by Dinwiddle expressed astonish-
ment that his troops should build forts upon lands
"so notoriously known to be the property of the
Crown of Great Britain." "I must desire you,"
continued the letter, "to acquaint me by whoHo
authority and instructions you have lately marched
^ Journal of Washington, as printed at WiUiamtburg, Juft af t«r
his return.
140 WASHINGTON. [1758.
from Canada with an armed force, and invaded the
King of Great Britain's territories. It becomes my
duty to require your peaceable departure; and that
you would forbear prosecuting a purpose so inter-
ruptive of the harmony and good understanding
which His Majesty is desirous to continue and culti-
vate with the Most Christian King. I persuade
m3rself you will receive and entertain Major Washing-
ton with the candor and politeness natural to your
nation ; and it will give me the greatest satisfaction
if you return him with an answer suitable to my
wishes for a very long and lasting peace between us."
Saint-Pierre took three days to frame the answer.
In it he said that he should send Dinwiddle's letter
to the Marquis Duquesne and wait his orders ; and
that meanwhile he should remain at his post, accord-
ing to the commands of his general. ^^ I made it my
particular care," so the letter closed, "to receive Mr.
Washington with a distinction suitable to your dig-
nity as well as his own quality and great merit. "^
No form of courtesy had, in fact, been wanting.
"He appeared to be extremely complaisant," says
Washington, " though he was exerting every artifice
to set our Indians at variance with us. I saw that
every stratagem was practised to win the Half-King
to their interest." Neither gifts nor brandy were
spared; and it was only by the utmost pains that
1 " La Distinction qui convient k votre Dignitt^ k sa Quality et k
ton grand M^rite." Copy of original letter tent bj Dinwiddle to
Ooyemor Hamilton
1754.] ON THE ALLEGHANY. 141
Washington could prevent his red allies from staying
at the fort, conquered by French blandishments.
After leaving Venango on his return, he found the
horses so weak that, to arrive the sooner, he left
them and their drivers in charge of Vanbraam and
pushed forward on foot, accompanied by Gist alone.
E^h was wrapped to the throat in an Indian ^^ match^
coat," with a gun in his hand and a pack at his back.
Passing an old Indian hamlet called Murdering
Town, they had an adventure which threatened to
make good the name. A French Indian, whom they
met in the forest, fired at them, pretending that his
gun had gone off by chance. They caught him, and
Gist would have killed him ; but Washington inter-
posed, and they let him go.^ Then, to escape pur-
suit from his tribesmen, they walked aU night and all
the next day. This brought them to the banks of
the Alleghany. They hoped to have found it dead
frozen; but it was all alive and turbulent, filled with
ice sweeping down the current. They made a raft,
shoved out into the stream, and were soon caught
helplessly in the drifting ice. Washington, pushing
hard with his setting-pole, was jerked into the freez-
ing river, but caught a log of the raft, and dragged
himself out. By no efforts could they reach the
farther bank, or regain that which they had left; but
they were driven against an island, where they
landed, and left the raft to its fate. The night was
^Journal of Mr, Christopher Gitt, in Mass. Hist, CcUL SrJ
142 WASHINGTON. [1758.
excessively cold, and Gist's feet and hands were
badly frost-bitten. In the morning, the ice had set,
and the river was a solid floor. They crossed it, and
succeeded in reaching the house of the trader Fraser,
on the Monongahela. It was the middle of January
when Washington arrived at Williamsburg and made
his report to Dinwiddle.
Robert Dinwiddie was lieutenant-governor of
Virginia, in place of the titular governor. Lord
Albemarle, whose post was a sinecure. He had been
clerk in a government oflBce in the West Indies;
then surveyor of customs in the "Old Dominion,"
— a position in which he made himself cordially dis-
liked; and when he rose to the governorship he
carried his unpopularity with him. Yet Virginia
and all the British colonies owed him much; for,
though past sixty, he was the most watchful sentinel
against French aggression and its most strenuous
opponent. Scarcely had Marin's vanguard appeared
at Presqu'isle, when Dinwiddie warned the home
government of the danger, and urged, what he had
before uiged in vain on the Virginian Assembly, the
immediate buUding of forts on the Ohio. There
came in reply a letter, signed by the King, authoriz-
ing him to build the forts at the cost of the colony,
and to repel force by force in case he was molested
or obstructed. Moreover, the King wrote: "If you
shall find that any number of persons shall presume
to erect any fort or forts within the limits of our
province of Virginia, you are first to require of them
1763.] DISPUTE WITH BURGESSES. 148
peaceably to depart; and if, notwithstanding your
admonitions, they do still endeavor to cany out any
such unlawful and unjustifiable designs, we do hereby
strictly charge and command you to drive them off
by force of arms."*
The order was easily given; but to obey it needed
men and money, and for these Dinwiddle was
dependent on his Assembly, or House of Burgesses.
He convoked them for the first of Noveiaber, sending
Washington at the same time with the summons to
Saint-Pierre. The burgesses met. Dinwiddle ex-
posed the danger, and asked for means to meet it.'
They seemed more than willing to comply; but
debates presently arose concerning the fee of a pistole,
which the governor had demanded on each patent of
land issued by him. The amount was trifling, but
the principle was doubtful. The aristocratic republic
of Virginia was intensely jealous of the slightest
encroachment on its rights by the Crown or its repre-
sentative. The governor defended the fee. The
buigesses replied that ^^ subjects cannot be deprived
of the least part of their property without their con-
sent," declared, the fee unlawful, and called on Din-
widdle to confess it to be so. He still defended it.
They saw in his demand for supplies a means of
bringing him to terms, and refused to grant money
unless he would recede from his position. Dinwiddle
^ InatrudioM to Our Trusty and WeU4>eloved Robert Dinwiddie, Esq,,
28 Auffust, 1763.
' Address of Lieutenant-Governor Dinwiddie to the Council and Bw^
gesses, 1 November, 1763.
144 WASHINGTON. [1753.
rebuked them for ^^disregarding the designs of the
French, and disputing the rights of the Crown; '* and
he "prorogued them in some anger." ^
Thus he was unable to obey the instructions of the
King. As a temporary resource, he ventured to
order a draft of two hundred men from the militia.
Washington was to have command, with the trader,
William Trent, as his lieutenant. His orders were
to push with all speed to the forks of the Ohio, and
there build a fort; "but in case any attempts are
made to obstruct the works by any persons whatso-
ever, to restrain all such offenders, and, in case of
resistance, to make prisoners of, or kill and destroy
them."* The governor next sent messengers to the
Catawbas, Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Iroquois of
the Ohio, inviting them to take up the hatchet against
the French, "who, under pretence of embracing
you, mean to squeeze you to death." Then he wrote
urgent letters to the governors of Pennsylvania, the
Carolinas, Maryland, and New Jersey, begging for
contingents of men, to be at Will's Creek in March at
the latest. But nothing could be done without
money; and trusting for a change of heart on the
part of the burgesses, he summoned them to meet
again on the fourteenth of February. " If they come
in good temper," he wrote to Lord Fairfax, a noble-
man settled in the colony, " I hope they will lay a
fund to qualify me to send four or five hundred men
1 Dinwiddle Papers,
* Ibid. Instructions to Major George Washington, January, 1764.
1753.] DINWIDDIE TO HANBURT. 146
more to the Ohio, which, with the assistance of our
neighboring colonies, may make some figure."
The session began. Again, somewhat oddly, yet
forcibly, the governor set before the Assembly the
peril of the situation, and begged them to postpone
less pressing questions to the exigency of the hour.^
This time they listened, and voted ten thousand
pounds in Virginia currency to defend the frontier.
The grant was frugal, and they jealously placed its
expenditure in the hands of a committee of their
own.^ Dinwiddle, writing to the Lords of Trade,
pleads necessity as his excuse for submitting to their
terms. ^^I am sorry,*' he says, '^to find them too
much in a republican way of thinking." What
vexed him still more was their sending an agent to
England to complain against him on the irrepressible
question of the pistole fee; and he writes to his
London friend, the merchant Hanbury: ^^I have had
a great deal of trouble from the factious disputes and
violent heats of a most impudent, troublesome party
here in regard to that silly fee of a pistole. Surely
every thinking man will make a distinction between
a fee and a tax. Poor people! I pity their igno-
rance and narrow, ill-natured spirits. But, my
friend, consider that I could by no means give up
this fee without affronting the Board of Trade and
the Council here who established it." His thoughts
1 Speech of Lieutenant-Governor Dinwiddle to the Council and Bur-
gesset, 14 February, 1754.
* See the biU in Hening, Statutes of Virginia, yL 417.
VOL. I. — 10
148 WASHINGTON. [1764.
were not all of this harassing nature, and he ends his
letter with the following petition : ^*' Now, sir, as His
Majesty is pleased to make me a military officer,
please send for Scott, my tailor, to make me a proper
suit of regimentals, to be here by His Majesty's
birthday. I do not much like gayety in dress, but I
conceive this necessary. I do not much care for lace
on the coat, but a neat embroidered button-hole;
though you do not deal that way, I know you have a
good taste, that I may show my friend's fancy in that
suit of clothes ; a good laced hat and two pair stock-
ings, one silk, the other fine thread." ^
If the governor and his English sometimes provoke
a smile, he deserves admiration for the energy with
which he opposed the public enemy, under circum-
stances the most discouraging. He invited the
Indians to meet him in council at Winchester, and,
as bait to attract them, coupled the message with a
promise of gifts. He sent circulars from the King
to the neighboring governors, calling for supplies,
and wrote letter upon letter to rouse them to effort
He wrote also to the more distant governors, Delancey
of New York, and Shirley of Massachusetts, begging
them to make what he called a '^ faint" against
Canada, to prevent the French from sending so large
a force to the Ohio. It was to the neai'er colonies,
from New Jersey to South Carolina, that he looked
for direct aid; and their several governors were all
more or less active to procure it; but as most of them
1 Dinwiddle to Banbury, 12 March, 1754 ; Ibid., 10 May, 1764.
1754.] PROVINCIAL APATHY. 147
had some standing dispute with their assemblies,
they could get nothing except on terms with which
they would not, and sometimes could not, comply.
As the lands invaded by the French belonged to one
of the two rival claimants, Virginia and Pennsyl-
vania, the other colonies had no mind to vote money
to defend them. Pennsylvania herself refused to
move. Hamilton, her governor, could do nothing
against the placid obstinacy of the Quaker non-
combatants and the stolid obstinacy of the German
farmers who chiefly made up his Assembly. North
Carolina alone answered the appeal, and gave money
enough to raise three or four hundred men. Two
independent companies maintained by the King in
New York, and one in South Carolina, had received
orders from England to march to the scene of action;
and in these, with the scanty levies of his own and
the adjacent province, lay Dinwiddle's only hope.
With men abundant and willing, there were no
means to put them into the field, and no commander
whom they would all obey.
From the brick house at Williamsburg pompously
called the Governor's Palace, Dinwiddle despatched
letters, orders, couriers, to hasten the tardy rein-
forcements of North Carolina and New York, and
push on the raw soldiers of the Old Dominion, who
now numbered three hundi'ed men. They were
caUed the Virginia regiment; and Joshua Fry, an
English gentleman, bred at Oxford, was made their
colonel, with Washington as next in command.
148 WASHINGTON. [1754.
Fry was at Alexandria with half the so-called regi-
ment^ trying to get it into marching order; Washing-
ton, with the other half, had pushed forward to the
Ohio Company's storehouse at Will's Creek, which
was to form a base of operations. His men were
poor whites, brave, but hard to discipline; without
tents, ill armed, and ragged as Falstaff's recruits.
Besides these, a band of backwoodsmen under Cap-
tain Trent had crossed the mountains in February to
build a fort at the forks of the Ohio, where Pittsburg
now stands, — a spot which Washington had ex-
amined when on his way to Fort Le Boeuf, and which
he had reported as the best for the purpose. The
hope was that Trent would fortify himself before the
arrival of the French, and that Washington and Fry
would join him in time to secure the position. Trent
had begun the fort, but for some unexplained reason
had gone back to Will's Creek, leaving Ensign Ward
with forty men at work upon it. Their labors were
suddenly interrupted. On the seventeenth of April
a swarm of bateaux and canoes came down the Alle-
ghany, bringing, according to Ward, more than a
thousand Frenchmen, though in reality not much
above five hundred, who landed, planted cannon
against the incipient stockade, and summoned the
ensign to surrender, on pain of what might ensue. ^
He complied, and was allowed to depart with his
men. Retracing his steps over the mountains, he
reported his mishap to Washington ; while the French
1 See the lummont in Precis du FaiU, 101.
1764.] DINWIDDIE'S VEXATION. 149
demolished his unfinished fort, began a much laiger
and better one, and named it Fort Duquesne.
They had acted with their usual promptness.
Their governor, a practised soldier, knew the value
of celerity, and had set his troops in motion with
the first opening of spring. He had no refractory
assembly to hamper him ; no lack of money, for the
King supplied it; and all Canada must march at his
bidding. Thus, while Dinwiddle was still toiling
to muster his raw recruits, Duquesne 's lieutenant,
Contrecoeur, successor of Saint-Pierre, had landed at
Presqu'isle with a much greater force, in part regu-
lars, and in part Canadians.
Dinwiddle was deeply vexed when a message from
Washington told him how his plans were blighted;
and he spoke his mind to his friend Hanbuiy: ^^If
our Assembly had voted the money in November
which they did in February, it 's more than probable
the fort would have been built and garrisoned before
the French had approached; but these things cannot
be done without money. As there was none in our
treasury, I have advanced my own to forward the
expedition; and if the independent companies from
New York come soon, I am in hopes the eyes of the
other colonies will be opened; and if they grant a
proper supply of men, I hope we shall be able to
dislodge the French or build a fort on that river. I
congratulate you on the increase of your family.
My wife and two girls join in our most sincere
respects to good Mrs. Hanbury."^
1 Dinwiddle to Hanbury, 10 May, 1764.
160 WASHINGTON. [1764
The seizure of a king's fort by planting canncm
against it and threatening it with destruction was in
his eyes a beginning of hostilities on the part of the
French; and henceforth both he and Washington
acted much as if war had been declared. From their
station at Will's Creek, the distance by the traders'
path to Fort Duquesne was about a hundred and
forty miles. Midway was a branch of the Monon-
gahela called Redstone Creek, at the mouth of which
the Ohio Company had built another storehouse.
Dinwiddle ordered all the forces to cross the moun-
tains and assemble at this point, until they should be
strong enough to advance against the French. The
moyement was critical in presence of an enemy as
superior in discipline as he was in numbers, while
the natural obstacles were great. A road for cannon
and wagons must be cut through a dense forest and
orver two ranges of high mountains, besides countless
hills and streams. Washington set all his force to
the work, and they spent a fortnight in making
twenty miles. Towards the end of May, however,
Dinwiddle learned that he had crossed the main ridge
of the AUeghanies, and was encamped with a hundred
and fifty men near the parallel ridge of Laurel Hill,
at a place called the Great Meadows. Trent's back-
woodsmen had gone off in disgust; Fry, with the
test of the regiment, was still far behind; and
Washington was daily expecting an attack. Close
upon this, a piece of good news, or what seemed
such, came over the mountains and gladdened the
1764.] A BLOW STRUCK. 161
heart of the governor. He heard that a French
detachment had tried to surprise Washington, and
that he had killed or captured the whole. The facts
were as follows.
Washington was on the Youghiogany, a branch of
the Monongahela, exploring it in hopes that it might
prove navigable, when a messenger came to him from
his old comrade, the Half-King, who was on the way
to join him. The message was to the effect that the
French had marched from their fort, and meant to
attack the first English they should meet. A report
came soon after that they were already at the ford of
the Youghiogany, eighteen miles distant. Washing-
ton at once repaired to the Great Meadows, a level
tract of grass and bushes, bordered by wooded hills,
and traversed in one part by a gully, which with a
little labor the men turned into an intrenchment, at
the same time cutting away the bushes and clearing
what the young commander called '^ a charming field
for an encounter.'' Parties were sent out to scour
the woods, but they found no enemy. Two days
passed; when, on the morning of the twenty-seventh,
Christopher Gist, who had lately made a settlement
on the farther side of Laurel Hill, twelve or thirteen
miles distant, came to the camp with news that fifty
Frenchmen had been at his house towards noon of
the day before, and would have destroyed everything
but for the intervention of two Indians whom he had
left in charge during his absence. Washington sent
seventy-five men to look for the party; but the
152 WASHINGTON. [1764
search was vain, the French having hidden them-
selves so well as to escape any eye but that of an
Indian. In the evening a runner came from the
Half-King, who was encamped with a few warriors
some miles distant. He had sent to tell Washington
that he had found the tracks of two men, and traced
them towards a dark glen in the forest, where in his
belief all the French were lurking.
Washington seems not to have hesitated a moment.
Fearing a stratagem to surprise his camp, he left his
main force to guard it, and at ten o'clock set out for
the Half-King's wigwams at the head of forty men.
The night was rainy, and the forest, to use his own
words, "as black as pitch." "The path," he con-
tinues, "was hardly wide enough for one man; we
often lost it, and could not find it again for fifteen or
twenty minutes, and we often tumbled over each
other in the dark. " ^ Seven of his men were lost in
the woods and left behind. The rest g^ped their
way all night, and reached the Indian camp at sun*
rise. A council was held with the Half-King, and
he and his warriors agreed to join in striking the
French. Two of them led the way. The tracks of
the two French scouts seen the day before were again
found, and, marching in single file, the party pushed
through the forest into the rocky hollow where the
1 Journal of Washington in PrScis des Faits, 100. This Journal,
which is entirely distinct from that before cited, was found bj the
French among the baggage left on the field after the defeat of
Braddock in 1755, and a translation of it was printed by them as
aboTe. The original has disappeared.
1754.] JUMONVILLE. 168
French were supposed to be concealed. They were
there in fact; and they snatched their guns the
moment they saw the English. Washington gave
the word to fire. A short fight ensued. Coulon de
Jumonville, an ensign in command, was killed, with
nine others; twenty-two were captured, and none
escaped but a Canadian who had fled at the beginning
of the fray. After it was over, the prisoners told
Washington that the party had been sent to bring
him a summons from Contrecoeur, the commandant
at Fort Duquesne.
Five days before, Contrecoeur had sent Jumonville
to scour the country as far as the dividing ridge of
the Alleghanies. Under him were another officer,
three cadets, a volunteer, an interpreter, and twenty-
eight men. He was provided with a written sum-
mons, to be delivered to any English he might find.
It required them to withdraw from the domain of
the King of France, and threatened compulsion by
force of arms in case of refusal. But before deliver-
ing the summons Jumonville was ordered to send
two couriers back with all speed to Fort Duquesne
to inform the commandant that he had found the
English, and to acquaint him when he intended to
communicate with them.^ It is difficult to imagine
any object for such an order except that of enabling
Contrecoeur to send to the spot whatever force might
be needed to attack the EngUsh on their refusal to
^ The summons and the instructions to Jumonrille are in Pribt
des Faits.
164 WASHINGTON. [1754.
withdraw. Jumonville had sent the two coimeis,
and had hidden himself, apparently to wait the
result. He lurked nearly two days within five miles
of Washington's camp, sent out scouts to reconnoitre
it, but gave no notice of his presence; played to
perfection the part of a skulking enemy, and brought
destruction on himself by conduct which can only be
ascribed to a sinister motive on the one hand, or to
extreme foUy on the other. French deserters told
Washington that the party came as spies, and were
to show the summons only if threatened by a superior
force. This last assertion is confirmed by the French
officer Pouchot, who says that Jumonville, seeing
himself the weaker party, tried to show the letter he
had brought.^
French writers say that, on first seeing the English,
Jumonville's interpreter called out that he had some-
thing to say to them ; but Washington, who was at
the head of his men, affirms this to be absolutely
false. The French say further that Jumonville was
killed in the act of reading the summons. This is
also denied by Washington, and rests only on the
assertion of the Canadian who ran off at the outset,
and on the alleged assertion of Indians who, if
present at all, which is unlikely, escaped like the
Canadian before the fray began. Druillon, an officer
with Jumonville, wrote two lettera to Dinwiddie
after his capture, to claim the privileges of the
bearer of a summons; but while bringing forward
^ Pouchot, Mimoire sur la demiere Guerre
1754.] WASHINGTON'S CHARACTERISTICS. 155
eveiy other circumstance in favor of the claim, he
does not pretend that the summons was read or shown
either before or during the action. The French
account of the conduct of Washington's Indians is no
less erroneous. "This murder/' says a chronicler of
the time, "produced on the minds of the savages an
effect very different from that which the cruel
Washington had promised himself. They have a
horror of crime ; and they were so indignant at that
which had just been perpetrated before their eyes,
that they abandoned him, and offered themselves to
us in order to take vengeance." ^ Instead of doing
this, they boasted of their part in the fight, scalped
all the dead Frenchmen, sent one scalp to the Dela-
wares as an invitation to take up the hatchet for the
English, and distributed the rest among the various
Ohio tribes to the same end.
Coolness of judgment, a profound sense of public
duty, and a strong self-control, were even then the
characteristics of Washington; but he was scarcely
twenty-two, was full of military ardor, and was
vehement and fiery by nature. Yet it is far from
certain that, even when age and experience had
ripened him, he would have forborne to act as he did,
for there was every reason for believing that the
designs of the French were hostile ; and though by
passively waiting the event he would have thrown
upon them the responsibility of striking the first
blow, he would have exposed his small party to
1 Poulin de Lumina, Histoire de la Guerre contre hi Angloit, 16.
156 WASHINGTON. [1754
capture or destruction by giving them time to gain
reinforcements from Fort Duquesne. It was inevi-
table that the killing of Jumonville should be greeted
in France by an outcry of real or assumed horror;
but the Chevalier de L^vis, second in command to
Montcalm, probably expresses the true opinion of
Frenchmen best fitted to judge when he calls it ^^ a
pretended assassination." ^ Judge it as we may, this
obscure skirmish began the war that set the world
on fire.'
Washington returned to the camp at the Great
Meadows; and, expecting soon to be attacked, sent
for reinforcements to Colonel Fry, who was lying
dangerously ill at Will's Creek. Then he set his
men to work at an intrenchment, which he named
Fort Necessity, and which must have been of the
slightest, as they finished it within three days.^ The
1 L^vis, M€moirt sur la Guerre du Canada,
s On this affair Sparks, WHtinga of Washington, ii. 26-48, 447
Dinwiddle Papers, Letter of Contrecantr in Pricii dea Faits, Journal
of Washington, Ibid. Washington to Dinwiddie, 3 June, 1754. Dus-
sieuz, Le Canada sous la Domination Fran^ise, 118. Gasp^, Anciens
Canadiens, Appendix, 396. Ttie assertion of AbM de I'Isle-Dieu,
that JumonyiUe showed a flag of truce, is unsupported. Adam
Stephen, who was in the fight, says that the guns of the English
were so wet that they had to trust mainly to the bayonet. The
Half King boasted that he killed Jumonville with his tomahawk.
Dinwiddie highly approved Washington's conduct.
In 1756 the widow of Jumonville received a pension of one hun-
dred and fifty francs. In 1775, his daughter, Charlotte Aimable,
wishing to become a nun, was given by the King six hundred francs
for her " trousseau " on entering the convent. Dossier de Jumon-
viUe et de sa Veuve, 22 Mars, 1766. Mimoire pour Mile, de JumonviUe^
10 JuiUet, 1776. Rfpmu du Garde des Sceaux, 26 Juillet, 1775.
• Journal of Washington in PrScis des Faits.
1764.] THE GREAT MEADOWS. 157
Half-King now joined him, along with the female
potentate known as Queen Alequippa, and some
thirty Indian families. A few days after, Gist came
from Will's Creek with news that Fry was dead.
Washington succeeded to the command of the regi-
ment, the remaining three companies of which pres-
ently appeared and joined their comrades, raising the
whole numher to three hundred. Next arrived the
independent company from South Carolina; and
the Great Meadows became an animated scene, with
the wigwams of the Indians, the camp-sheds of the
rough Virginians, the cattle grazing on the tall
grass or drinking at the lazy brook that traversed
it; the surrounding heights and forests; and over
all, four miles away, the lofty green ridge of Laurel
Hill.
The presence of the company of regulars was a
doubtful advantage. Captain Mackay, its com-
mander, holding his commission from the King,
thought himself above any officer commissioned by
the governor. There was great courtesy between
him and Washington; but Mackay would take no
orders, nor even the countersign, from the colonel of
volunteers. Nor would his men work, except for an
additional shilUng a day. To give this was impos.
sible, both from want of money, and from the discon-
tent it would have bred in the Virginians, who
worked for nothing besides their daily pay of eight-
pence. Washington, already a leader of men, pos*
pessed himself in a patience extremely difficult to
158 WASHINGTON. [1764
his passionate temper; but the position was untenable,
and the presence of the military drones demoralized
his soldiers. Therefore, leaving Mackay at the
Meadows, he advanced towards Gist's settlement,
cutting a wagon road as he went.
On reaching the settlement the camp was formed
and an intrenchment thrown up. Deserters had
brought news that strong reinforcements were ex-
pected at Fort Duquesne, and friendly Indians
repeatedly warned Washington that he would soon
be attacked by overwhelming numbers. Forty
Indians from the Ohio came to the camp, and several
days were spent in councils with them; but they
proved for the most part to be spies of the French.
The Half-King stood fast by the English, and sent
out three of his young warriors as scouts. Reports
of attack thickened. Mackay and his men were sent
for, and they arrived on the twenty-eighth of June.
A council of war was held at Gist's house; and as
the camp was commanded by neighboring heights, it
was resolved to fall back. The horses were so few
that the Virginians had to carry much of the baggage
on their backs, and drag nine swivels over the broken
and rocky road. The regulars, though they also
were raised in the provinces, refused to give the
slightest help. Toiling on for two days, they reached
the Great Meadows on the first of July. The posi-
tion, though perhaps the best in the neighborhood,
was very unfavorable, and Washington would have
retreated farther, but for the condition of his men.
1764.] COULON DE VILLIERS. 159
They were spent with fatigue, and there was no
choice but to stay and fight.
Strong reinforcements had been sent to Fort
Duquesne in the spring, and the garrison now con-
sisted of about fourteen hundred men. When news
of the death of Jumonville reached Montreal, Coulon
de Villiers, brother of the slain officer, was sent to
the spot with a body of Indians from all the tribes in
the colony. He made such speed that at eight
o'clock on the morning of the twenty-sixth of June
he reached the fort with his motley following. Here
he found that five hundred Frenchmen and a few
Ohio Indians were on the point of marching against
the English, under Chevalier Le Mercier; but in
view of his seniority in rank and his relationship to
Jumonville, the command was now transferred to
Villiers. Hereupon, the march was postponed; the
newly-arrived warriors were called to council, and
Contrecoeur thus haransnied them: ^'The English
have murdered my chUd^n; my heart Ib sick! to-
morrow I shall send my French soldiers to take
revenge. And now, men of the Saut St. Louis, men
of the Lake of Two Mountains, Hurons, Abenakis,
Iroquois of La Presentation, Nipissings, Algonquins,
and Ottawas, — I invite you all by this belt of wam-
pum to join your French father and help him to
crush the assassins. Take this hatchet, and with it
two barrels of wine for a feast." Both hatchet and
wine were cheerfully accepted. Then Contrecoeur
turned to the Delawares, who were also present:
160 WASHINGTON. [1764.
** By these four strings of wampum I invite you, if
you are true children of Onontio, to follow the
example of your brethren; " and with some hesitation
they also took up the hatchet.
The next day was spent by the Indians in making
moccasons for the march, and by the French in pre-
paring for an expedition on a larger scale than had
been at first intended. Contrecoeur, Villiers, Le
Mercier, and Longueuil, after deliberating together,
drew up a paper to the effect that ^^ it was fitting
(convenahle) to march against the English with the
greatest possible number of French and savages, in
order to avenge ourselves and chastise them for
having violated the most sacred laws of civilized
nations;" that, though their conduct justified the
French in disregarding the existing treaty of peace,
yet, after thoroughly punishing them, and compelling
them to withdraw from the domain of the King, they
should be told that, in pursuance of his royal orders,
the French looked on them as friends. But it was
further agreed that should the English have with-
drawn to their own side of the mountains, "they
should be followed to their settlements to destroy
them and treat them as enemies, till that nation
should give ample satisfaction and completely change
its conduct." ^
1 Journal de Campagne de M, de VUliers depuis son Arrivh au
Fort Duquetne ju$qt^h son Retour au dit Fort, These and other pas-
sages are omitted in the Journal as printed in Pr€ci» des Faitt,
Before me is a copj from the original in the Archives de la
Marine.
1764.] MARCH OF VILLIERS. 161
The party set out on the next morning, paddled
their canoes up the Monongahela, encamped, heard
mass; and on the thirtieth reached the deserted store-
house of the Ohio Company at the mouth of Redstone
Creek. It was a building of solid logs, well loop-
holed for musketry. To please the Indians by
asking their advice, Villiers called all the chiefs to
council; which being concluded to their satisfaction,
he left a sergeant's guard at the storehouse to watch
the canoes, and began his march through the forest.
The path was so rough that at the first halt the chap-
lain declared he could go no farther, and turned
back for the storehouse, though not till he had
absolved the whole company in a body. Thus light-
ened of their sins, they journeyed on, constantly
sending out scouts. On the second of July they
reached the abandoned camp of Washington at Gist's
settlement; and here they bivouacked, tired, and
drenched all night by rain. At daybreak they
marched again, and passed through the gorge of
Laurel Hill. It rained without ceasing; but Villiers
pushed his way through the dripping forest to see
the place, half a mile from the road, where his
brother had been killed, and where several bodies
still lay unburied. They had learned from a deserter
the position of the enemy, and Villiers filled the
woods in front with a swarm of Indian scouts. The
crisis was near. He formed his men in column, and
ordered every officer to his place.
Washington's men had had a full day at Fort
VOL. I. — u
162 WASHINGTON. [1751
Necessity; but they spent it less in resting from their
fatigue than in strengthening their rampart with
logs. The fort was a simple square enclosure, with
a trench said by a French writer to be only knee
deep. On the south, and partly on the west, there
was an exterior embankment, which seems to have
been made, like a rifle-pit, with the ditch inside.
The Virginians had but Uttle ammunition, and no
bread whatever, living chiefly on fresh beef. They
knew the approach of the French, who were reported
to Washington as nine hundred strong, besides
Indians. Towards eleven o'clock a wounded sentinel
came in with news that they were close at hand ; and
they presently appeared at the edge of the woods,
yelling, and firing from such a distance that their
shot fell harmless. Washington drew up his men
on the meadow before the fort, thinking, he says,
that the enemy, being greatly superior in force, would
attack at once; and choosing for some reason to meet
them on the open plain. But Villiers had other
views. " We approached the English," he writes, " as
near as possible, without uselessly exposing the lives
of the King's subjects;" and he and his followers
made their way through the forest till they came
opposite the fort, where they stationed themselves on
two densely wooded hills, adjacent, though sepa-
rated by a small brook. One of these was about a
hundred paces from the English, and the other about
sixty. Their position was such that the French and
Indians, well sheltered by trees and bushes, and with
1764.] FORT NECESSITY. 163
the advantage of higher ground, could cross their
fire upon the fort and enfilade a part of it. Wash-
ington had meanwhile drawn his followers within the
intrenchment; and the firing now began on both
sides. Rain fell all day. The raw earth of the
embankment was turned to soft mud, and the men in
the ditch of the outwork stood to the knee in water.
The swivels brought back from the camp at Gist's
farm were mounted on the rampart; but the gunners
were so ill protected that the pieces were almost
silenced by the French musketry. The fight lasted
nine hours. At times the fire on both sides was
nearly quenched by the showers, and the bedrenched
combatants could do little but gaze at each other
through a gray veil of mist and rain. Towards
night, however, the fusillade revived, and became
sharp again until dark. At eight o'clock the French
called out to propose a parley.
Villiers thus gives his reasons for these overtures.
" As we had been wet all day by the rain, as the
soldiers were very tired, as the savages said that they
would leave us the next morning, and as there was
a report that drums and the firing of cannon had
been heard in the distance, I proposed to M. Le
Mercier to offer the English a conference." He says
fiirther that ammunition was falling short, and that
he thought the enemy might sally in a body and
attack him.i The English, on their side, were in a
1 Journal de Villiers, original. Omitted in the Journal as printed
by the French goremment. A short and very incorrect abstract
of this Journal will be found in N, Y. Col, Docs., z.
164 WASHINGTON. [1754.
worse plight. They were half starved, their powder
was nearly spent, their guns were foul, and among
them all they had but two screw-rods to clean them.
In spite of his desperate position, Washington
declined the parley, thinking it a pretext to introduce
a spy; but when the French repeated their proposal
and requested that he would send an officer to them,
he could hesitate no longer. There were but two
men with him who knew French, Ensign Peyroney,
who was disabled by a wound, and the Dutchman,
CSaptain Yanbraam. To him the unpalatable errand
was assigned. After a long absence he returned with
articles of capitulation offered by Villiers ; and while
the officers gathered about him in the rain, he read
and interpreted the paper by the glimmer of a sput*
tering candle kept alight with difficulty. Objection
was made to some of the terms, and they were
changed. Yanbraam, however, apparently anxious
to get the capitulation signed and the affair ended,
mistranslated several passages, and rendered the
words Vassassinat du Sieur de JumonvUle as the death
of the Sieur de JumonvUle.^ As thus understood, the
articles were signed about midnight. They provided
that the English should march out with drums beat-
ing and the honors of war, canying with them one
of their swivels and all their other property; that
^ See Appendix C. On the fight at Great Meadows, compare
Sparks, Writings of Washington, ii. 456-468 ; also a letter of Colonel
Innes to Grovemor Hamilton, written a week after the event, in
Colonial Records of Pa., vi. GO, and a letter of Adam Stephen, in
Ptnnsjflvania Gazette, 1754.
1764.] CAPITULATION. 166
they should be protected against insult from French
or Indians; that the prisoners taken in the affair of
Jumonville should be set free; and that two officers
should remain as hostages for their safe return to
Fort Duquesne. The hostages chosen were Van-
braam and a brave but eccentric Scotchman, Robert
Stobo, an acquaintance of the novelist Smollett, said
to be the original of his Lismahago.
Washington reports that twelve of the Virginians
were killed on the spot, and forty-three wounded,
while of the casualties in Mackay's company no
returns appear. Villiers reports his own loss at only
twenty in all.^ The numbers engaged are uncertain.
The six companies of the Virginia regiment counted
three hundred and five men and officers, and Mackay's
company one hundred; but many were on the sick
Ust, and some had deserted. About three hundred
and fifty may have taken part in the fight. On the
side of the French, Villiers says that the detachment
as originally formed consisted of five himdred white
men. These were increased after his arrival at Fort
Duquesne, and one of the party reports that seven
hundred marched on the expedition.' The number
1 Dinwiddle writes to the Lords of Trade that thirty In aU were
kiUed, and seventy wounded, on the English side ; and the commis-
sary Varin writes to Bigot that the French lost seventy-two kiUed
and wonnded.
* A Journal had from Thomas Forbes, latdy a Private Soldier in die
King of France's Service, (Pablic Record Office.) Forbes was one
of Villiers's soldiers. The commissary Varin puts the number of
French at six hundred, besides Indians.
166 WASHINGTON. [1754.
of Indians joining them is not given; but as nine
tribes and communities contributed to it, and as two
barrels of wine were required to give the warriors a
parting feast, it must have been considerable. White
men and red, it seems clear that the French force
was more than twice that of the English, while they
were better posted and better sheltered, keeping all
day under cover, and never showing themselves on
the open meadow. There were no Indians with
Washington. Even the Half-King held aloof;
though, being of a caustic turn, he did not spare his
comments on the fight, telling Conrad Weiser, the
provincial interpreter, that the French behaved like
cowards, and the English like fools.^
In the early morning the fort was abandoned and
the retreat began. The Indians had killed all the
horses and cattle, and Washington's men were so
burdened with the sick and wounded, whom they
were obliged to carry on their backs, that most of the
baggage was perforce left behind. Even then they
could march but a few miles, and then encamped to
wait for wagons. The Indians increased the con-
fusion by plundering, and threatening an attack.
They knocked to pieces the medicine-chest, thus
1 Journal of Conrad Weiser, in Colonial Records of Pa,, ri, 160.
The Half-King also remarked that Washington " was a good-
natured man, but had no experience, and would hy no means take
advice from the Indians, but was always driving them on to fight
hy his directions ; that he lay at one place from one f uU moon to
the other, and made no fortifications at all, except that little thing
upon the meadow, where he thought the French would come up to
him in open field."
1751] SUCCESS OF VILLIERa 167
causing great distress to the wounded, two of whom
they murdered and scalped. For a time there was
danger of panic; but order was restored, and the
wretched march began along the forest road that led
over the Alleghanies, fifty-two miles to the station
at Will's Creek. Whatever may have been the feel-
ings of Washington, he has left no record of them.
His immense fortitude was doomed to severer trials
in the future; yet perhaps this miserable morning
was the darkest of his life. He was deeply moved
by sights of suffering; and all around him were
wounded men borne along in torture, and weary men
staggering under the living load. His pride was
humbled, and his yoimg ambition seemed blasted in
the bud. It was the fourth of July. He could not
foresee that he was to make that day forever glorious
to a new-bom nation hailing him as its father.
The defeat at Fort Necessity was doubly disastrous
to the English, since it was a new step and a long
one towards the ruin of their interest with the
Indians; and when, in the next year, the smoulder-
ing war broke into flame, nearly all the western tribes
drew their scalping-knives for France.
Villiers went back exultant to Fort Duquesne,
burning on his way the buildings of Gist's settlement
and the storehouse at Redstone Creek. Not an
English flag now waved beyond the Alleghanies.^
^ See Appendix 0.
CHAPTER VI.
1754, 1765.
THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE.
Tboublbs of Dinwiddie. — Gathering of the Bdboesses. —
YiROiifiAir Society. — Refractory Legislators. — The Qua-
ker Assembly : it refuses to resist the French. — Apathy
OF New York. — Shirley and the General Court of
Massachusetts. — Short-sighted Policy. — Attitude of
Royal Governors. — Indian Allies waver. — Convention
AT Albany. — Scheme of Union : it fails. — Dinwiddib
AND Glen. — Dinwiddie calls on England for Help. —
The Duke of Newcastle. — Weakness of the British
Cabinet. — Attitude of France. — Mutual Dissimulation.
— Both Powers send Troops to America. — Collision. —
Capture of the "Alcide" and the "Lis."
The defeat of Washington was a heavy blow to
the governor, and he angrily ascribed it to the delay
of the expected reinforcements. The King's com-
panies from New York had reached Alexandria, and
crawled towards the scene of action with thin ranks,
bad discipline, thirty women and children, no tents,
no blankets, no knapsacks, and for munitions one
barrel of spoiled gunpowder.^ The case was still
worse with the regiment from North Carolina. It
was commanded by Colonel Innes, a countrjonan and
1 Dinwiddie to the Lords of Trade, 24 Jtdy, 1754. Ibid, to Delancey
90 June, 1764.
1764.] THE VIRGINIAN CAPITAL. 169
friend of Dinwiddle, who wrote to him: ^Deoi
James, I now wish that we had none from your
colony but yourself, for I foresee nothing but con-
fusion among them." The men were, in fact, utterly
unmanageable. They had been promised three shil«
lings a day, while the Virginians had only eightpence;
and when they heard on the march that their pay was
to be reduced, they mutinied, disbanded, and went
home.
"You may easily guess," says Dinwiddie to a
London correspondent, "the great fatigue and trouble
I have had, which is more than I ever went through
in my life." He rested his hopes on the session of
his Assembly, which was to take place in August;
for he thought that the late disaster would move
them to give him money for defending the colony.
These meetings of the burgesses were the great social
as well as political event of the Old Dominion, and
gave a gathering signal to the Virginian gentry scat-
tered far and wide on their lonely plantations. The
capital of the province was Williamsburg, a village
of about a thousand inhabitants, traversed by a
straight and very wide street, and adorned with
various public buildings, conspicuous among which
was William and Mary College, a respectable struc-
ture, imjustly likened by Jefferson to a brick kiln
with a roof. The capitol, at the other end of the
town, had been burned some years before, and had
just risen from its ashes. Not far distant was the
so-called Governor's Palace, where Dinwiddie with
170 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [17M.
his wife and two daughteis exercised such official
hospitality as his moderate salary and Scottish thrift
would permit.^
In these seasons of festivity the dull and quiet
village was transfigured. The broad, sandy street,
scorching under a southern sun, was thronged with
coaches and chariots brought over from London at
heavy cost in tobacco, though soon to be bedimmed
by Virginia roads and negro care ; racing and hard-
drinking planters; clergymen of the Establishment,
not much more ascetic than their boon companions
of the laity; ladies, with manners a little rusted by
long seclusion; black coachmen and footmen, proud
of their masters and their liveries; young cavaliers,
booted and spurred, sitting their thoroughbreds with
the careless grace of men whose home was the saddle.
It was a proud little provincial society, which might
seem absurd in its lofty self-appreciation, had it not
soon approved itself so prolific in ability and worth.^
The burgesses met, and Dinwiddle made them an
opening speech, inveighing against the aggressions
of the French, their "contempt of treaties," and
"ambitious vievirs for universal monarchy;" and he
concluded: "I could expatiate very largely on these
1 For a contemporary account of Williamsburg, Bumabj,
Traoels in North America, 6. Smyth, Tour in America, i. 17, de-
scribes it some years later.
^ The English trareller Smyth, in his Tour, gives a curious and
Tirid picture of Virginian life. For the social condition of this
and other colonies before the Revolution, one cannot do better
than to consult Lodge's Short Hiitortf of the English Colonies,
1754.] TROUBLES OF DINWIDDIE. ITl
affairs, but my heart bums with resentment at their
insolence. I think there is no room for many argu-
ments to induce you to raise a considerable supply to
enable me to defeat the designs of these troublesome
people and enemies of mankind." The burgesses in
their turn expressed the ^^ highest and most becoming
resentment," and promptly voted twenty thousand
pounds; but on the third reading of the bill they
added to it a rider which touched the old question of
the pistole fee, and which, in the view of the gov-
ernor, was both unconstitutional and offensive. He
remonstrated in vain; the stubborn republicans would
not yield, nor would he; and again he prorogued
them. This unexpected defeat depressed him greatly.
*• A governor," he wrote, "is really to be pitied in the
discharge of his duty to his king and country, in
having to do with such obstinate, self-conceited
people. ... I cannot satisfy the burgesses unless I
prostitute the rules of government. I have gone
through monstrous fatigues. Such wrong-headed
people, I thank God, I never had to do with before." ^
A few weeks later he was comforted; for, having
again called the burgesses, they gave him the money,
without trying this time to humiUate him.a
In straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel,
aristocratic Virginia was far outdone by democratic
Pennsylvania. Hamilton, her governor, had laid
1 Dinwiddle to Hamilton, 6 September, 1754. Ibid, to J, Abercrom-
bie, 1 September, 1754.
2 Hening, vi. 435.
172 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1754
before the Assembly a circular letter from the Eail
of Holdemesse, directing him, in common with other
governors, to call on his province for means to repel
any invasion which might be made ^^ within the
undoubted limits of His Majesty's dominion." ^ The
Assembly of Pennsylvania was curiously unlike that
of Virginia, as half and often more than half of its
members were Quaker tradesmen in sober raiment
and broad-brimmed hats; while of the rest, the
greater part were Germans who cared little whether
they lived under English inile or French, provided
that they were left in peace upon their farms. The
House replied to the governor's call: "It would be
highly presumptuous in us to pretend to judge of the
undoubted limits of His Majesty's dominions ; " and
they added: "the Assemblies of this province are
generally composed of a majority who are constitu-
tionally principled against war, and represent a weU-
meaning, peaceable people."' They then adjourned,
telling the governor that, " As those our limits have
not been clearly ascertained to our satisfaction, we
fear the precipitate call upon us as the province
invaded cannot answer any good purpose at this
time."
In the next month they met again, and again
Hamilton asked for means to defend the country.
The question was put, Should the Assembly give
^ T*ke Earl o/Hoidernease to the Governors in America, 28 August,
1763.
« Colonial Records of Pa., t. 748.
1764. J CONDUCT OF THE QUAKERS. 17S
money for the King^s use ? and the vote was feebly
affirmative. Should the sum be twenty thousand
pounds ? The vote was overwhelming in the nega-
tive. Fifteen thousand, ten thousand, and five
thousand were successively proposed, and the answer
was always. No. The House would give nothing but
five hundred pounds for a present to the Indians;
after which they adjourned ^to the sixth of the
month called May."^ At their next meeting they
voted to give the governor ten thousand pounds; but
under conditions which made them for some time
independent of his veto, and which, in other respects,
were contrary to his instructions from the King, as
well as from the proprietaries of the province, to
whom he had given bonds to secure his obedience.
He therefore rejected the bill, and they adjourned.
In August they passed a similar vote, with the same
result At their October meeting they evaded his
call for supplies. In December they voted twenty
thousand pounds, hampered with conditions which
were sure to be refused, since Morris, the new gov-
ernor, who had lately succeeded Hamilton, was under
the same restrictions as his predecessor. They told
him, however, that in the present case they felt
themselves bound by no Act of Parliament, and
added: "We hope the Governor, notwithstanding
any penal bond he may have entered into, will on
reflection think himself at liberty and find it con-
^ Pennsylvania Archive, ii. 236. Colonial Records of Pa., tL 22-
26. Works of Franklin, iU. 206.
174 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1754.
sistent with his safety and honor to give his assent
to this bill." Morris, who had taken the highest
legal advice on the subject in England, declined to
compromise himself, saying: ^^ Consider, gentlemen,
in what light you will appear to His Majesty while,
instead of contributing towards your own defence,
you are entering into an ill-timed controversy con-
cerning the validity of royal instructions which may
be delayed to a more convenient time without the
least injury to the rights of the people."^ They
would not yield, and told him ^^ that they had rather
the French should conquer them than give up their
privileges. " * " Truly, " remarks Din widdie, " I think
they have given their senses a long holiday."
New York was not much behind her sisters in con-
tentious stubbornness. In answer to the governor's
appeal, the Assembly replied: ^^It appears that the
French have built a fort at a place called French
Creek, at a considerable distance from the River
Ohio, which may, but does not by any evidence or
information appear to us to be an invasion of any of
His Majesty's colonies."* So blind were they as yet
to "manifest destiny I'' Afterwards, however, on
learning the defeat of Washington, they gave five
thousand pounds to aid Virginia.^ Maryland, after
long delay, gave six thousand. New Jersey felt
* Colonial Records of Pa,, vi. 216.
* Morris to Penn, 1 January, 1756.
* Address of the Assembly to Lieutenant-Governor Delancey, 23
April, 1764. Zorc/s of Trade to Delancey, 5 July, 1754.
* Delancey to Lords of Trade, 8 October, 1754.
1754.] COLONIAL DISSENSIONS. 176
herself safe behind the other colonies, and would
give nothing. New England, on the other hand, and
especially Massachusetts, had suffered so much from
French war-parties that they were always ready to
fight. Shirley, the governor of Massachusetts, had
returned from his bootless errand to settle the boun-
dary question at Paris. His leanings were strongly
monarchical; yet he believed in the New Englanders,
and was more or less in sympathy with them. Both
he and they were strenuous against the French, and
they had mutually helped each other to reap laurels
in the last war. Shirley was cautious of giving
umbrage to his Assembly, and rarely quarrelled with
it, except when the amount of his salary was in
question. He was not averse to a war with France;
for though bred a lawyer, and now past middle life,
he flattered himself with hopes of a high military
command. On the present occasion, making use of
a rumor that the French were seizing the carrying-
place between the Chaudidre and the Kennebec, he
drew from the Assembly a large grant of money, and
induced them to call upon him to march in person to
the scene of danger. He accordingly repaired to
Falmouth (now Portland); and, though the rumor
proved false, sent eight hundred men under Captain
John Winslow to build two forts on the Kennebec
as a measure of precaution.^
^ Mcusachusetts Archives, 1764. Hutchinson, iii. 26. Condit't
of Major- General Shirley briefly stated. Journals of ths Board ^
Trade, 1754.
176 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1761
While to these northern provinoes Canada was an
old and pestilent enemy, those towards the south
scarcely knew her by name ; and the idea of French
aggression on their borders was so novel and strange
that they admitted it with difficulty. Mind and
heart were engrossed in strife with their governors:
the universal struggle for virtual self-rule. But the
war was often waged with a passionate stupidity.
The colonist was not then an American; he was
simply a provincial, and a narrow one. The time
was yet distant when these dissevered and jealous
communities should weld themselves into one broad
nationality, capable, at need, of the mightiest efforts
to purge itself of disaffection and vindicate its com-
manding unity.
In the interest of that practical independence which
they had so much at heart, two conditions were
essential to the colonists. The one was a field for
expansion, and the other was mutual help. Their
first necessity was to rid themselves of the French,
who, by shutting them between the AUeghanies and
the sea, would cramp them into perpetual littleness.
With France on their backs, growing while they had
no room to grow, they must remain in helpless ward-
ship, dependent on England, whose aid they would
always need; but with the West open before them,
their future was their own. King and Parliament
would respect perforce the will of a people spread
from the ocean to the Mississippi, and united in
action as in aims. But in the middle of the last
1754.] ATTITUDE OF ROYAL GOVERNORS. 177
centxuy the vision of the ordinary colonist rarely
reached so far. The immediate victory over a gov-
emor, however slight the point at issue, was more
precious in his eyes than the remote though decisive
advantage which he saw but dimly.
The governors, representing the central power,
saw the situation from the national point of view.
Several of them, notably Dinwiddle and Shirley, were
filled with wrath at the proceedings of the French ;
and the former was exasperated beyond measure at
the supineness of the provinces. He had spared no
effort to rouse them, and had failed. His instincts
were on the side of authority; but, under the cir-
cumstances, it is hardly to be imputed to him as a
very deep offence against human liberty that he
advised the compelling of the colonies to raise men
and money for their own defence, and proposed,
in view of their " intolerable obstinacy and disobedi-
ence to his Majesty's commands," that Parliament
should tax them half-a-crown a head. The approach-
ing war offered to the party of authority tempta-
tions from which the colonies might have saved it
by opening their purse-strings without waiting to be
told.
The home government, on its part, was but half-
hearted in the wish that they should unite in oppo-
sition to the common enemy. It was very willing
that the several provinces should give money and
men, but not that they should acquire military habits
and a dangerous capacity of acting together. There
VOL 1. — 12
178 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1761
was one kind of union, however, bo obviously neces-
sary, and at the same time so little to be dreaded,
that the British Cabinet, instructed by the governors,
not only assented to it, but urged it. This was joint
action in making treaties with the Indians. The
practice of separate treaties, made by each province in
its own interest, had bred endless disorders. The
adhesion of all the tribes had been so shaken, and the
efforts of the French to alienate them were so vig-
orous and effective, that not a moment was to be lost
Joncaire had gained over most of the Senecas, Piquet
was drawing the Onondagas more and more to his
mission, and the Dutch of Albany were alienating
their best friends, the Mohawks, by encroaching on
their lands. Their chief, Hendrick, came to New
York with a deputation of the tribe to complain of
their wrongs; and finding no redress, went off in
anger, declaring that the covenant chain was broken.'
The authorities in alarm called William Johnson to
their aid. He succeeded in soothing the exasperated
chief, and then proceeded to the confederate council
at Onondaga, where he found the assembled sachems
full of anxieties and doubts. ^^ We don't know what
you Christians, English and French, intend," said
one of their orators. " We are so hemmed in by you
both that we have hardly a hunting-place left. In a
little while, if we find a bear in a tree, there will
immediately appear an owner of the land to claim the
property and hinder us from killing it, by which
1 N. Y. Col, Docs,, Yi. 788. Colonial Records of Pa,, t. e26.
1754.] CONVENTION AT ALBANY. 179
we live. We are so perplexed between you that we
hardly know what to say or think." ^ No man had
such power over the Five Nations as Johnson. Hid
dealings with them were at once honest, downright,
and sympathetic. They loved and trusted him as
much as they detested the Indian commissioners at
Albany, whom the province of New York had charged
with their affairs, and who, being traders, grossly
abused their office.
It was to remedy this perilous state of things that
the Lords of Trade and Plantations directed the
several governors to urge on their assemblies the
sending of commissioners to make a joint treaty with
the wavering tribes.' Seven of the provinces, New
York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the four New
England colonies, acceded to the plan, and sent to
Albany, the appointed place of meeting, a body of
men who for character and ability had never had an
equal on the continent, but whose powers from their
respective assemblies were so cautiously limited as
to preclude decisive action. They met in the court-
house of the little frontier city. A large ^^chain-
belt " of wampum was provided, on which the King
was symbolically represented, holding in his embrace
the colonies, the Five Nations, and all their allied
tribes. This was presented to the assembled war-
» N. Y. Col. Docs,, Ti. 818.
* Circular Letter of Lords of Trade to Governors in America, 18
September, 1763. Lords of Trade to Sir Danvers Osborne, in N. Y.
Col. Docs., vi. 800.
180 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1754.
riors, with a speech in which the tmsdeeds of the
French were not forgotten. The chief, Hendrick,
made a much better speech in reply. " We do now
solenmly renew and brighten the covenant chain.
We shall take the chain-belt to Onondaga, where
our council-fire always bums, and keep it so safe
that neither thunder nor lightning shall break it."
The commissioners had blamed them for allowing so
many of their people to be drawn away to Piquet's
mission. ^^It is true/' said the orator, ^^that we live
disunited. We have tried to bring back our brethren,
but in vain; for the Governor of Canada is like a
wicked, deluding spirit. You ask why we are so
dispersed. The reason is that you have neglected us
for these three years past" Here he took a stick
and threw it behind him. " You have thus thrown
us behind your back; whereas the French are a
subtle and vigilant people, always using their utmost
endeavors to seduce and bring us over to them."
He then told them that it was not the French alone
who invaded the country of the Indians. "The
Governor of Virginia and the Governor of Canada
are quarrelling about lands which belong to us, and
their quarrel may end in our destruction." And he
closed with a burst of sarcasm. "We would have
taken Crown Point [in the last war]^ but you pre-
vented us. Instead, you burned your own fort at
Saratoga and ran away from it, — which was a shame
and a scandal to you. Look about your country and
see : you have no fortifications ; no, not even in this
1764.] SCHEMES OF UNION. 181
city. It is but a step from Canada hither, and the
French may come and turn you out of doors. You
desire us to speak from the bottom of our hearts, and
we shall do it. Look at the French : they are men ;
they are fortifying everywhere. But you are all like
women, bare and open, without fortifications.'* ^
Hendrick's brother Abraham now took up the
word, and begged that Johnson might be restored to
the management of Indian affairs, which he had
formerly held; "for," said the chief, "we love him
and he us, and he has always been our good and
trusty friend." The commissioners had not power
to grant the request, but the Indians were assured
that it should not be forgotten ; and they returned to
their villages soothed, but far from satisfied. Nor
were the commissioners empowered to take any
effective steps for fortifying the frontier.
The congress now occupied itself with another
matter. Its members were agreed that great danger
was impending; that without wise and just treat-
ment of the tribes, the French would gain them all,
build forts along the back of the British colonies,
and, by means of ships and troops from France,
master them one by one, unless they would combine
for mutual defence. The necessity of some form of
union had at length begun to force itself upon the
colonial mind. A rough woodcut had lately appeared
* Proceedings of the Congress at Albany, N. Y. Col. Docs., rL 863.
A few verbal changes, for the sake of brevity, are made in the
above extracts.
182 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [17M.
in the *^ Pennsylvania Gazette," figuring the provinces
under the not very flattering image of a snake cut to
pieces, with the motto, ^^ Join, or die." A writer of
the day held up the Five Nations for emulation,
observing that if ignorant savages could confederate,
British colonists might do as much.^ Franklin, the
leading spirit of the congress, now laid before it his
famous project of union, which has been too often
described to need much notice here. Its fate is well
known. The Crown rejected it because it gave too
much power to the colonies; the colonies, because it
gave too much power to the Crown, and because it
required each of them to transfer some of its func-
tions of self-government to a central council. An-
other plan was afterwards devised by the friends of
prerogative, perfectly agreeable to the King, since it
placed all power in the hands of a council of gov-
emors, and since it involved compulsory taxation of
the colonists, who, for the same reasons, would have
doggedly resisted it, had an attempt been made to
carry it into eflfect*
Even if some plan of union had been agreed upon,
long delay must have followed before its machinery
could be set in motion; and meantime there was
^ Kennedy, Importance of gaining and preserving the Friendship of
the Indians,
* On the Albany plan of nnion, Franklin's Works, i. 177. Shir-
ley thought it " a great strain upon the prerogative of the Crown/'
and was for requiring the colonies to raise money and men ** with-
out farther consulting them upon any points whateyer." ShirUjf to
Bobinson, 24 December, 1764.
1754.] DiNWIDDIE AND GLEN. 188
need of immediate action. War-parties of Indiana
from Canada, set on, it was thought, by the governor,
were already burning and murdering among the
border settlements of New York and New Hampshire.
In the south Dinwiddie grew more and more alarmed,
^for the French are like so many locusts; they are
collected in bodies in a most surprising manner;
their number now on the Ohio is from twelve hun-
dred to fifteen hundred." He writes to Lord Gran
ville that, in his opinion, they aim to fconquer the
continent, and that ^^the obstinacy of this stubborn
generation" exposes the country ^^to the merciless
rage of a rapacious enemy." What vexed him even
more than the apathy of the assemblies was the con-
duct of his brother-governor. Glen of South Carolina,
who, apparently piqued at the conspicuous part
Dinwiddie was acting, wrote to him in a "very dic-
tatorial style," found fault with his measures, jested
at his activity in writing letters, and even questioned
the right of England to lands on the Ohio; till he
was moved at last to retort: "I cannot help observ-
ing that your letters and arguments would have been
more proper from a French officer than from one of
His Majesty's governors. My conduct has met with
His Majesty's gracious approbation; and I am sorry
it has not received yours." Thus discouraged, even
in quarters where he had least reason to expect it,
he turned all his hopes to the home government;
again recommended a tax by Act of Parliament, and
begged, in repeated letters, for arms, munitions, and
184 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1754
two regiments of infantry.^ His petition was not
made in vain.
England at this time presented the phenomenon of
a prime minister who could not command the respect
of his own servants. A more preposterous figure
than the Duke of Newcastle never stood at the head
of a great nation. He had a feverish craving for
place and power, joined to a total unfitness for both.
He was an adept in personal politics, and was so
biasied with the arts of winning and keeping office
that he had no leisure, even if he had had ability, for
the higher work of government. He was restless,
quick in movement, rapid and confused in speech,
lavish of worthless promises, always in a hurry, and
at once headlong, timid, and rash. ^^A borrowed
importance and real insignificance," says Walpole,
who knew him well, ^^gave him the perpetual air of
a solicitor. . . • He had no pride, though infinite
self-love. He loved business immoderately; yet was
only always doing it, never did it. When left to
himself, he always plunged into difficulties, and then
shuddered for the consequences." Walpole gives an
anecdote showing the state of his ideas on colonial
matters. General Ligonier suggested to him that
Annapolis ought to be defended. "To which he
replied with his lisping, evasive hurry: 'Annapolis,
Annapolis! Oh, yes, Annapolis must be defended;
to be sure, Annapolis should be defended, — where
^ Dinwiddle Papers; letters to Granyille, Albemarle, Halifax,
Fox, Holdemesse, Horace Walpole, and Lords of Trade.
1754.] THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. iSi
18 Annapolis ? ' " ^ Another contemporaiy, Smolletti
ridicules him in his novel of ^^ Humphrey Clinker/*
and tells a similar stoiy, which, founded in fact or
not, shows in what estimation the minister was held:
^^ Captain C. treated the Duke's character without
any ceremony. VThis wiseacre,' said he, ^is still
abed; and I think the best thing he can do is to
sleep on till Christmas ; for when he gets up he does
nothing but expose his own folly. In the beginning
of the war he told me in a great fright that thirty
thousand French had marched from Acadia to Cape
Breton. Where did they find transports ? said I. —
Transports! cried he, I tell you they marched by
land. — By land to the island of Cape Breton ! — What,
is Cape Breton an island ? — Certainly. — Ha! are you
sure of that ? — When I pointed it out on the map,
he examined it earnestly with his spectacles ; then,
taking me in his arms, — My dear C, cried he, you
always bring us good news. Egad ! I 'U go directly
and tell the King that Cape Breton is an island. ' "
His wealth, county influence, flagitious use of
petronage, and long-practiaed skiU in keeping majori-
ties in the House of Commons by means that would
not bear the light, made his support necessary to
Pitt himself, and placed a fantastic political jobber
at the helm of England in a time when she needed a
patriot and a statesman. Newcastle was the growth
of the decrepitude and decay of a great party, which
had fulfilled its mission and done its work. But if
1 Walpole, George IL, i. 844.
186 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1751
the Whig soil had become poor for a wholesome
crop, it was never so rich for toadstools.
Sir Thomas Robinson held the Southern Depart-
ment, charged with the colonies; and Lord Mahon
remarks of him that the duke had achieved the feat
of finding a secretary of state more incapable than
himself. He had the lead of the House of Commons.
^Sir Thomas Robinson lead us! " said Pitt to Henry-
Fox ; ^ the Duke might as well send his jackboot to
lead us." The active and aspiring Halifax was at
the head of the Board of Trade and Plantations.
The Duke of Cumberland commanded the army,
— an indifferent soldier, though a brave one; harsh,
violent, and headlong. Anson, the celebrated navi-
gator, was First Lord of the Admiralty, — a position
in which he disappointed everybody.
In France the true ruler was Madame Pompadour,
once the King's mistress, now his procuress, and a
sort of feminine prime minister. Machault d' Amou-
ville was at the head of the Marine and Colonial
Department. The diplomatic representatives of the
two Crowns were more conspicuous for social than
for political talents. Of Mirepoix, French ambassa-
dor at London, Marshal Saxe had once observed:
^ It is a good appointment; he can teach the English
to dance." Walpole says concerning him: ^He
could not even learn to pronounce the names of our
games of cards, — which, however, engaged most of
the hours of his negotiation. We were to be bullied
out of our colonies by an apprentice at whist I " Lord
1754.] ENGLAND AND FRANCE COMPARED. 187
Albemarle, English ambassador at Versailles, is held
up by Chesterfield as an example to encourage his
son in the pursuit of the graces: ^^What do you
think made our friend Lord Albemarle colonel of a
regiment of Guards, Governor of Virginia, Groom of
the Stole, and ambassador to Paris, — amounting in
all to sixteen or seventeen thousand pounds a year?
Was it his birth? No; a Dutch gentleman only.
Was it his estate? No; he had none. Was it his
learning, his parts, his political abilities and appli-
cation? You can answer these questions as easily
and as soon as I can ask them. What was it then?
Many people wondered; but I do not, for I know,
and will tell you, — it was his air, his address, his
manners, and his graces."
The rival nations differed widely in military and
naval strength. England had afloat more than two
hundred ships -of -war, some of them of great forces
while the navy of France counted little more than
half the number. On the other hand, England had
reduced her army to eighteen thousand men, and
France had nearly ten times as many under arms.
Both alike were weak in leadership. That rare son
of the tempest, a great conmiander, was to be found
in neither of them since the death of Saxe.
In respect to the approaching crisis, the interests
of the two Powers pointed to opposite courses of
action. What France needed was time. It was her
policy to put off a rupture, wreathe her face in
diplomatic smiles, and pose in an attitude of peace
188 THE SIGNAL OP BATTLE. [1754.
and good faiUi, while increasing her navy, reinfor-
cing her garrisons in America^ and strengthening her
positions there. It was the policy of England to
attack at once, and tear up the young encroachments
while they were yet in the sap, before they could
strike root and harden into stiff resistance.
When, on the fourteenth of November, the King
made his opening speech to the Houses of Parliament,
he congratulated them on the prevailing peace, and
assured them that he should improve it to promote
the trade of his subjects, ^^and protect those posses-
sions which constitute one great source of their
wealth.*' America was not mentioned; but his
hearers understood him, and made a liberal grant for
the service of the year.^ Two regiments, each of
five hundred men, had already been ordered to sail
for Virginia, where their numbers were to be raised
by enlistment to seven hundred. ^ Major-General
Braddock, a man after the Duke of Cumberland's
own heart, was appointed to the chief command.
The two regiments — the forty-fourth and the forty-
eighth — embarked at Cork in the middle of January.
The soldiers detested the service, and many had
deserted. More would have .done so had they fore-
seen what awaited them.
This movement was no sooner known at Versailles
» Entick, Late War, i. 118.
' Robinson to Lords of the Admiralty, 30 September, 1764. Ibid, to
Board of Ordnance, 10 October, 1754. Ibid., Circular Letter to Ameri"
can Governors, 26 October, 1764. Instructions to our Trusty and Welh
beloved Edward Braddock, 26 November, 1754.
1765.] THE FRENCH EXPEDITION. 189
than a counter expedition was prepared on a larger
scale. Eighteen ships-of-war were fitted for sea at
Brest and Rochefort, and the six battalions of La
Reine, Boui-gogne, Languedoc, Guienne, Artois,
and B^am, three thousand men in all, were ordered
on board for Canada. Baron Dieskau, a German
veteran who had served under Saxe, was made their
general; and with him went the new governor of
French America, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, destined
to succeed Duquesne, whose health was failing under
the fatigues of his office. Admiral Dubois de la
Motte commanded the fleet; and lest the English
should try to intercept it, another squadron of nine
ships, under Admiral Macnamara, was ordered to
accompany it to a certain distance from the coast.
There was long and tedious delay. Doreil, com-
missary of war, who had embarked with Vaudreuil
and Dieskau in the same ship, wrote from the harbor
of Brest on the twenty-ninth of April: "At last I
think we are off. We should have been outside by
four o^clock this morning, if M. de Macnamara had
not been obliged to ask Count Dubois de la Motte to
wait till noon to mend some important part of the
rigging (I don't know the name of it) which was
broken. It is precious time lost, and gives the Eng-
lish the advantage over us of two tides. I talk of
these things as a blind man does of colors. What is
certain is that Count Dubois de la Motte is very
impatient to get away, and that the King's fleet
destined for Canada is in vei}^ able and zealous hands.
190 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [17»
It is now half-past two. In half an hour all may be
ready, and we may get out of the harbor before
night." He was SLgaia disappointed ; it was the third
of May before the fleet put to sea.^
During these preparations there was active diplo-
matic correspondence between the two courts.
Mirepoix demanded why British troops were sent to
America. Sir Thomas Robinson answered that there
was no intention to disturb the peace or offend any
Power whatever; yet the secret orders to Braddock
were the reverse of pacific. Robinson asked on his
part the purpose of the French armament at Brest
and Rochefort; and the answer, like his own, was a
protestation that no hostility was meant. At the
same time Mirepoix in the name of the King proposed
that orders should be given to the Americcm governors
on both sides to refrain from all acts of aggres-
sion. But while making this proposal the French
Court secretly sent orders to Duquesne to attack and
destroy Fort Halifax, one of the two forts lately
built by Shirley on the Kennebec, — a river which,
by the admission of the French themselves, belonged
to the English. But, in making this attack, the
French governor was expressly enjoined to pretend
that he acted without orders.' He was also told
^ Lettres dt Cremillef de RoMtaing, et de Doreil au Ministre, Avril
IS, 24, 28, 29, 1765. Liste des Vaitseaux de Guerre qui compoeent
PEscadre arm€e h Brest, 1756. Journal of M, de VaudreuiPs Voyage
to Canada, in N, Y, Col, Docs., x. 297. Pouchot, i. 25.
* Machault a Duquesne, 17 Fivrier, 1755. The letter of Mirepoix
propoiing mutual abitinence from aggression is dated on the sixth
1766.] BOSCAWEN'S EXPEDITION. 191
ihat| if necessaiy, he might make use of the Indians
to harass the English.^ Thus there was good faith
on neither part; but it is clear through all the oorre-
spondence that the English expected to gain by pre-
cipitating an open rupture, and the French by
postponing it. Projects of convention were proposed
on both sides, but there was no agreement. The
English insisted as a preliminary condition that the
French should evacuate all the western country as
far as the Wabash. Then ensued a long discussion
of their respective claims, as futile as the former dis-
cussion at Paris on Acadian boundaries.^
The British Court knew perfectly the naval and
military preparations of the French. Lord Albemarle
had died at Paris in December; but the secretary of
the embassy, De Cosne, sent to London full informa-
tion concerning the fleet at Brest and Rochefort'
On this. Admiral Boscawen, with eleven ships-of-
the-line and one frigate, was ordered to intercept
it; and as his force was plainly too small. Admiral
Holboume, with seven more ships, was sent, nearly
three weeks after, to join him if he could. Their
orders were similar, — to capture or destroy any
French vessels bound to North America.^ Boscawen,
of the same month. The French dreaded Fort Halifax, became
they thought it prepared the way for an advance on Quebec by way
of the Chaudi^re.
1 MachauU a Duquesne, 17 Fourier, 1765.
^ This correspondence is printed among the Pthces ju8t\ficativet
of the Pricis des Fait$.
• Particulars in Entick, i. 121.
* Stent ImtrwAunufor our Truity and Wdlrbdovtd Edward Bo0»
192 THE SIGNAL OF BATTLE. [1766.
who got to sea before La Motte, stationed himself
near the southern coast of Newfoundland to cut him
off; but most of the French squadron eluded him,
and safely made their way, some to Louisbourg, and
the others to Quebec. Thus the English expedition
was, in the main, a failure. Three of the French
ships, however, lost in fog and rain, had become
separated from the rest, and lay rolling and tossing
on an angry sea not far from Cape Race. One of
them was the ^^Alcide," commanded by Captain
Hocquart; the others were the ^^Lis" and the
"Dauphin." The wind feU; but the fogs continued
at intervals ; till, on the afternoon of the seventh of
June, the weather having cleared, the watchman on
the maintop saw the distant ocean studded with
ships. It was the fleet of Boscawen. Hocquart,
who gives the account, says that in the morning they
were within three leagues of him, crowding all sail
in pursuit. Towards eleven o'clock one of them, the
"Dunkirk,*' was abreast of him to windward, within
short speaking distance ; and the ship of the admiral,
displaying a red flag as a signal to engage, was not
far off. Hocquart called out: "Are we at peace, or
war?" He declares that Howe, captain of the
"Dunkirk," replied in French: "La paix, la paix."
Hocquart then asked the name of the British admiral ;
and on hearing it said: "I know him; he is a friend
cawen, Esq,, Vice-Admiral of the Blue, 16 April, 1766. Most secret
Instructions for Francis Holboume, Esq., Bear^Admiral of the Blue, 9
Ma^, 1766. Robinson to Lords of the Admiralty, 8 May, 1766.
1755.] THE ALCIDE AND THE LIS. 198
of mine.*' Being asked his own name in return, he
had scarcely uttered it when the batteries of the
" Dunkirk " belched flame and smoke, and volleyed a
tempest of iron upon the crowded decks of the
"Alcide." She returned the fire, but was forced at
length to strike her colors* Rostaing, second in
command of the troops, was killed; and six other
officers, with about eighty men, were killed or
wounded.^ At the same time the ^^ Lis " was attacked
and overpowered. She had on board eight companies
of the battalions of La Reine and Languedoc. The
third French ship, the "Dauphin," escaped under
cover of a rising fog.*
Here at last was an end to negotiation. The sword
was drawn and brandished in the eyes of Europe.
^ Ltste de$ Officiers tuA et blets^B dans U Combat de VAlcide et du
Lis.
* Hocqoart'i account is giyen in fuU by Plchon, LeUres ei
Mimoires pour servir h VHistoire du Cap-Breton, The short account
in Pricis des Fails, 272, seems, too, to be drawn from Hocquart.
Also Boscawen to Robinson, 22 June, 1755. Vaudreuil au Ministre,
2iJuiUet,n^. Entick, i. 137.
Some English accounts say that Captain Howe, in answer to the
question, " Are we at peace, or war ? " returned, " I don't know ;
but you had better prepare for war." Boscawen places the action
on the tenth, instead of the eighth, and puts the English loss at
seTen kiUed and twenty-seven wounded.
TOI*. I. — 18
CHAPTER Vn.
175&
BRADDOCK.
Absital or Braddook : his Chabactbr. — ConiroiL at Albx-
ahdbia.-^Plah or thb Caicpaion. — Apathy op thb Colo-
BitTS. — Baob op Bbaddook. — Frahkun. — FOBT Cumbbblandl
— C0MPO8ITIOB OP THB Abmy. — Oppbndbd Fbibndb. — Thb
Mabgh. — Thb Fbbnoh Fobt. — Sayaob Allibs. — Thb Cap*
TIVB. — BbAUJBU : HB OOBt TO MBBT THB ENGLISH. — PaS-
SAOB or THB MOHONOAHBLA. — ThB SuBPBISB. — ThB BaTTLB.
— Rout or Bbaddogk : his Dbath. — Indiah Fbbocity. —
Rbcbption op thb III Nbws. — Wbaknbss op Dunbab. —
Thb Fbohtdbb abakdobbd.
^ I HAYB the pleasure to acquaint you that General
Braddock came to my house last Sunday night, " writes
Dinwiddle, at the end of February, to Governor
Dobbs of North Carolina. Braddock had landed
at Hampton from the ship ^^ Centurion," along with
young Commodore Keppel, who commanded the
American squadron. ^^I am mighty glad," ag^in
writes Dinwiddle, ^^that the General is arrived,
which I hope will give me some ease; for these
twelve months past I have been a perfect slave."
He conceived golden opinions of his guest. ^'He
is, I think, a very fine officer, and a sensible, con-
siderate gentleman. He and I live in great harmony. "
1765.] WALPOLE'S SKETCH OF BRADDOCK. 195
Had he known him better, he might have praised
him less. William Shirley, son of the governor of
Massachusetts, was Braddock's secretary; and after
an acquaintance of some months wrote to his friend
Governor Morris: "We have a general most judi-
ciously chosen for being disqualified for the service
he is employed in in almost every respect. He may
be brave for aught I know, and he is honest in pecu-
niary matters." ^ The astute Franklin, who also had
good opportunity of knowing him, says: "This
general was, I think, a brave man, and might prob-
ably have made a good figure in some European war.
But he had too much self-confidence; too high an
opinion of the validity of regular troops ; too mean a
one of both Americans and Indians."^ Horace
Walpole, in his function of gathering and immortaliz-
ing the gossip of his time, has left a sharply drawn
sketch of Braddock in two letters to Sir Horace
Mann, written in the summer of this year: "I love
to give you an idea of our characters as they rise
upon the stage of history. Braddock is a very Iro-
quois in disposition. He had a sister who, having
gamed away all her little fortune at Bath, hanged
herself with a truly English deliberation, leaving
only a note upon the table with those lines: ^ To die
is landing on some silent shore, ' etc. When Brad-
dock was told of it, he only said: ^ Poor Fanny I I
always thought she would play till she would be
1 Shirley the younger to Morris, 23 May, 1756.
3 Franklin, Autobiography,
196 BRADDOCK. [1756.
foiced to ttbck herself up. ' " Under the name of Miss
Sylvia S ^ Goldsmith, in his life of Nash, tells
the stoiy of this unhappy woman. She was a rash
bat warm-hearted creature, reduced to penury and
dependence, not so much by a passion for cards as
by her lavish generosity to a lover ruined by his own
follies, and with whom her relations are said to have
been entirely innocent. Walpole continues : ^^ But a
more ridiculous story of Braddock, and which is
recorded in heroics by Fielding in his * Covent
Grarden Tragedy,' was an amorous discussion he
had formerly with a Mrs. Upton, who kept him. He
had gone the greatest lengths with her pin-money,
and was still craving. One day, that he was very
pressing, she pulled out her purse and showed him
that she had but twelve or fourteen shillings left.
He twitched it from her: ' Let me see that.' Tied
up at the other end, he found five guineas. He took
them, tossed the empty purse in her face, saying,
* Did you mean to cheat me? ' and never went near
her more. Now you are acquainted with Greneral
Braddock.'*
^ He once had a duel with Colonel Gumley, Lady
Bath's brother, who had been his great friend. As
they were going to engage, Gumley, who had good-
humor and wit (Braddock had the latter), said,
^Braddock, you are a poor dog! Here, take my
purse; if you kill me, you will be forced to run
away, and then you will not have a shilling to sup-
port you. ' Braddock refused the purse, insisted on
1765.] ANECDOTES OF BRADDOCK 197
the duel, was disarmed, and would not even ask his
life. However, with all his brutality, he has lately
been governor of Gibraltar, where he made himself
adored, and where scarce any governor was endured
before. "1
Another story is told of him by an accomplished
actress of the time, George Anne Bellamy, whom
Braddock had known from girlhood, and with whom
his present relations seem to have been those of an
elderly adviser and friend. "As we were walking
in the Park one day, we heard a poor fellow was to
be chastised; when I requested the General to beg
off the offender. Upon his application to the general
officer, whose name was Dury, he asked Braddock
how long since he had divested himself of the brutal-
ity and insolence of his manners? To which the
other replied: 'You never knew me insolent to my
inferiors. It is only to such rude men as yourself
that I behave with the spirit which I think they
deserve. ' "
Braddock made a visit to the actress on the even-
ing before he left London for America. " Before we
parted," she says, "the General told me that he
should never see me more ; for he was going with a
handful of men to conquer whole nations ; and to do
this they must cut their way tlirough unknown
woods. He produced a map of the country, saying
1 Letters of Horace Walpole (1866), ii. 459, 461. It is doubtful if
Braddock was ever govemor of Gibraltar ; though, as Mr. Sargent
■hows, he once commanded a regiment there.
198 BRADDOCK. [1755.
at the same time: ' Dear Pop, we are sent like sacri«
fices to the altar, ' " ^ — a strange presentiment for a
man of his sturdy temper.
Whatever were his failings, he feared nothing, and
his fidelity and honor in the discharge of public
trusts were never questioned. ^^ Desperate in his
fortune, brutal in his behavior, obstinate in his senti-
ments," again writes Walpole, "he was still intrepid
and capable."^ He was a veteran in years and in
service, having entered the Coldstream Guards as
ensign in 1710.
The transports bringing the two regiments from
Ireland all arrived safely at Hampton, and were
ordered to proceed up the Potomac to Alexandria,
where a camp was to be formed. Thither, towards
the end of March, went Braddock himself, along
with Keppel and Dinwiddle, in the governor's coach;
while his aide-de-camp, Orme, his secretary, Shirley,
and the servants of the party followed on horseback.
Braddock had sent for the elder Shirley and other
provincial governors to meet him in coimcil ; and on
the fourteenth of April they assembled in a tent of
the newly formed encampment. Here was Dinwiddle,
who thought his troubles at an end, and saw in the
red-coated soldiery the near fruition of his hopes*
Here, too, was his friend and ally, Dobbs of North
Carolina; with Morris of Pennsylvania, fresh from
^ Apologjffor ike Life of Grtorge Anne Bellamy, written by henelf^ iL
a04 (London, 1786).
« Walpole, George IL, I 890.
1765.] THE COUNCIL. 199
Assembly quarrels; Sharpe of Maryland, who, hay-
ing once been a soldier, had been made a sort of
provisional commander-in-chief before the arrival
of Braddock; and the ambitious Delancey of New
York, who had lately led the opposition against the «
governor of that province, and now filled the office
himself, — a position that needed all his manifold
adroitness. But, next to Braddock, the most note-
worthy man present was Shirley, governor of Massa-
chusetts. There was a fountain of youth in this old
lawyer. A few years before, when he was boundary
conunissioner in Paris, he had had the indiscretion
to many a young Catholic French girl, the daughter
of his landlord; and now, when more than sixty
years old, he thirsted for military honors, and
delighted in contriving operations of war. He was
one of a very few in the colonies who at this time
entertained the idea of expelling the French from
the continent. He held that Carthage must be
destroyed; and, in spite of his Parisian marriage,
was the foremost advocate of the root-and-branch
policy. He and Lawrence, governor of Nova Scotia,
had concerted an attack on the French fort of
Beaus^jour; and, jointly with others in New Eng-
land, he had planned the capture of Crown Point,
the key of Lake Champlain. By these two strokes
and by fortifying the portage between the Kennebec
and the Chaudidre, he thought that the northern
colonies would be saved from invasion, and placed
in a position to become themselves invaders. Then,
200 BBADDOCK. [176a
by driving the enemy from Niagara, securing that
important pass, and thus cutting off the communica-
tion between Canada and her interior dependencies,
an the French posts in the West would die of inani-
tion.^ In order to commend these schemes to the
home government, he had painted in gloomy colors
the dangers that beset the British colonies. Our
Indians, he said, will all desert us if we submit to
French encroachment. Some of the provinces are
full of negro slaves, ready to rise against their
masters, and of Roman Catholics, Jacobites, indented
servants, and other dangerous persons, who would
aid the French in raising a servile insurrection.
Pennsylvania is in the hands of Quakers, who will
not fight, and of Germans, who are likely enough to
join the enemy. The Dutch of Albany would do
anjrthing to save their trade. A strong force of
French regulars might occupy that place without
resistance, then descend the Hudson, and, with the
help of a naval force, capture New York and cut the
British colonies asunder.^
The plans against Crown Point and Beaus^jour
had already found the approval of the home govern-
ment and the energetic support of all the New
England colonies. Preparation for them was in full
activity; and it was with great difficulty that Shirley
had disengaged himself from these cares to attend
the Council at Alexandria. He and Dinwiddle stood
1 Porrespondence of Shirley ^ 1764, 1755.
* ShirUjf to Robinson^ 24 January, 1755i
1756.] PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN. 201
in the front of opposition to French designs. As
they both defended the royal prerogative and were
strong advocates of taxation by Parliament, they
have found scant justice from American writers.
Yet the British colonies owed them a debt of grati-
tude, and the American States owe it still.
Braddock laid his instructions before the Council,
and Shirley found them entirely to his mind; while
the general^ on his part, fully approved the schemes
of the governor. The plan of the campaign was
settled. The French were to be attacked at four
points at once. The two British regiments lately
arrived were to advance on Fort Duquesne; two
new regiments, known as Shirley*s and Pepperrell's,
just raised in the provinces, and taken into the King's
pay, were to reduce Niagara; a body of provincials
from New England, New York, and New Jersey was
to seize Crown Point; and another body of New
England men to capture Beaus^jour and bring
Acadia to complete subjection. Braddock himself
was to lead the expedition against Fort Duquesne.
He asked Shirley, who, though a soldier only in
theory, had held the rank of colonel since the last
war, to charge himself with that against Niagara ; and
Shirley eagerly assented. The movement on Crown
Point was intrusted to Colonel William Johnson, by
reason of his influence over the Indians and his repu-
tation for energy, capacity, and faithfulness. Lastly,
the Acadian enterprise was assigned to Lieutenant*
Colonel Monckton, a reg^ar officer of merit.
202 BBADDOCK. [175S.
To strike this fourfold blow in time of peace was
a scheme worthy of Newcastle and of Cumberland.
The pretext was that the positions to^be attacked
were all on British soil; that in occupying them the
French had been guilty of invasion; and that to
expel the invaders would be an act of self-defence.
Yet in regard to two of these positions, the French,
if they had no other right, might at least claim one
of prescription. Crown Point had been twenty-four
years in their imdisturbed possession, while it was
three quarters of a century since they first occu-
pied Niagara; and, though New York claimed the
groimd, no serious attempt had been made to dis-
lodge them.
Other matters now engaged the CouncQ. Brad-
dock, in accordance with his instructions, asked the
governors to urge upon their several assemblies the
establishment of a general fund for the service of
the campaign ; but the governors were all of opinion
that the assemblies would refuse, — each being
resolved to keep the control of its money in its own
hands; and all present, with one voice, advised that
the colonies should be compelled by Act of Parlia-
ment to contribute in due proportion to the support
of the war. Braddock next asked if, in the judg-
ment of the Council, it would not be well to send
Colonel Johnson with full powers to treat with the
Five Nations, who had been driven to the verge of
an outbreak by the misconduct of the Dutch Indian
commissioners at Albany. The measure was cor-
1756.] FREPABATION. 208
dially approved, as was also another suggestion of
the general, that vessels should be built at Oswego
to command Lake Ontario. The Council then
dissolved.
Shirley hastened back to New England, burdened
with the preparation for three expeditions and the
command of one of them. Johnson, who had been in
the camp, though not in the Council, went back to
Albany, provided with a commission as sole superin-
tendent of Indian affairs, and charged, besides, with
the enterprise against Crown Point; while an express
was despatched to Monckton at Halifax, with orders
to set at once to his work of capturing Beaus^jour.^
In regard to Braddock's part of the campaign,
there had been a serious error. If, instead of landing
in Virginia and moving on Fort Duquesne by the
long and circuitous route of WilFs Creek, the two
regiments had disembarked at Philadelphia and
marched westward, the way would have been short-
ened, and would have lain through one of the richest
and most populous districts on the continent, filled
with supplies of every kind. In Virginia, on the
other hand, and in the adjoining province of Mary-
1 Minutes of a Council held at the Camp at Alexandriaf in Virginia,
April 14, 1765. Instructione to Major-General Braddock, 25 November,
1754. Secret Instructions to Major-General Braddock, same date.
Napier to Braddock, written bif Order of the Duke of Cumberland, 25
November, 1754, in Pr€cis des Fails, Pikces just\ficatives, ld8. Orme,
Journal of Braddock's Expedition, Instructions to Governor Shirleif.
Correspondence of Shirley, Correspondence of Braddock (Public
Record Office). Johnson Papers, Dinwiddle Papers, Pennsylvania
Archives, ii.
204 BRADDOCSL [175&
land, wagons, hoises, and forage were scarce. The
enemies of the Administration ascrihed this blunder
to the influence of the Quaker merchant, John
Hanbury, whom the Duke of Newcastle had con-
sulted as a person familiar with American affairs.
Hanbury, who was a prominent stockholder in the
Ohio Company, and who traded largely in Virgfinia,
saw it for his interest that the troops should pass
that way, and is said to have brought the duke to
this opinion.^ A writer of the time thinks that if
they had landed in Pennsylvania, forty thousand
pounds would have been saved in money, and six
weeks in time.*
Not only were supplies scarce, but the people
showed such unwillingness to furnish them, and
such apathy in aiding the expedition, that even
Washington was provoked to declare that "they
ought to be chastised."^ Many of them thought
that the alarm about French encroachment was a
device of designing politicians; and they did not
awake to a full consciousness of the peril till it was
forced upon them by a deluge of calamities, produced
by the purblind folly of their own representatives,
who, instead of frankly promoting the expedition,
^ Skebbeare's Tracts, Letter L Dr. Shebbeare was a political
pamphleteer, pilloried bj one ministry, and rewarded by the next
He certainly speaks of Hanbury, though he does not give his name.
Compare Sargent, 107, 162.
' Gentleman's Magazine, August, 1766.
* Writings of Washington, ii. 78. He speaks of the people of
Pennsylvania.
1755.] HIS DIFFICULTIES. 206
displayed a perverse and exasperating narrowness
which chafed Braddock to fury. He praises the
New England colonies, and echoes Dinwiddle's
declaration that they have shown a ^^fine martial
spirit," and he commends Virginia as having done
far better than her neighbors ; but for Pennsylvania
he finds no words to express his wrath. ^ He knew
nothing of the intestine war between proprietaries
and people, and hence could see no palliation for a
conduct which threatened to ruin both the expedition
and the colony. Everything depended on speed,
and speed was impossible ; for stores and provisions
were not ready, lliough notice to furnish them had
been given months before. The quartermaster-
general, Sir John Sinclair, ^^ stormed like a lion
rampant," but with small effect.^ Contracts broken
or disavowed, want of horses, want of wagons, want
of forage, want of wholesome food, or sufficient food
of any kind, caused such delay that the report of it
reached England, and drew from Walpole the com-
ment that Braddock was in no hurry to be scalped.
In reality he was maddened with impatience and
vexation.
A powerful ally presently came to his aid in the
shape of Benjamin Franklin, then postmaster-general
of Pennsylvania. That sagacious personage, — the
sublime of commonnsense, about equal in his instincts
1 Braddock to Robinson, 18 March, 19 April, 5 June, 1766, etc. On
the attitude of Pennsylvania, Colonial Records of Pa., ri., passim.
* Colonial Records of Pa,, vi. 368.
206 BRADDOCK. [1766
and motives of character to the respectable average
of the New England that produced him, but gifted
with a versatile power of brain rarely matched on
earth, — was then divided between his strong desire
to repel a danger of which he saw the imminence,
and his equally strong antagonism to the selfish
claims of the Penns, proprietaries of Pennsylvania.
This last motive had determined his attitude towards
their representative, the governor, and led him into
an opposition as injurious to the military good name
of the province as it was favorable to its political
longings. In the present case there was no such
conflict of inclinations; he could help Braddock
without hurting Pennsylvania. He and his son had
visited the camp, and found the general waiting
restlessly for the report of the agents whom he had
sent to collect wagons. ^^I stayed with him," says
Franklin, ^^ several days, and dined with him daily.
When I was about to depart, the returns of wagons
to be obtained were brought in, by which it appeared
that" they amounted only to twenty-five, and not all
of these were in serviceable condition." On this the
general and his officers declared that the expedition
was at an end, and denounced the ministry for send-
ing them into a country void of the means of trans-
portation. Franklin remarked that it was a pity
they had not landed in Pennsylvania, where almost
every farmer had his wagon. Braddock caught
eagerly at his words, and begged that he would use
his influence to enable the troops to move. Franklin
175fi.] WILL'S CREEK. 207
went back to Pennsylyania, issued an address to the
farmeis appealing to their interest and their fears,
and in a fortnight procured a hundred and fifty
wagons, with a large number of horses.^ Braddock,
grateful to his bene&ctor, and enraged at everybody
else, pronounced him ^^ Almost the only instance of
ability and honesty I have known in these provinces." '
More wagons and more horses gradually arrived, and
at the eleventh hour the march began.
On the tenlli of May Braddock reached Will's
Creek, where the whole force was now gathered,
having marched thither by detachments along the
banks of the Potomac. This old trading-station of
the Ohio Company had been transformed into a
military post and named Fort Cumberland. During
the past winter the independent companies which
had failed Washington in his need had been at work
here to prepare a base of operations for Braddock.
Their axes had been of more avail than their muskets.
A broad wound had been cut in the bosom of the
forest, and the murdered oaks and chestnuts turned
into ramparts, barracks, and magazines. Fort Cum-
berland was an enclosure of logs set upright in the
ground, pierced with loopholes, and armed with ten
small cannon. It stood on a rising ground near the
point where Will's Creek joined the Potomac, and
^ Franklin, Autobiography, Advertisement of B, Franklin Jbr
Wagons , Address to the Inhabitants of the Counties of York, Lanea^
ter, and Cumberland, in Pennsylvania Archives, ii. 204.
> Braddock to Robinson, 5 June, 1755. The letters of Braddock
here cited are the orig^aU in the Pablic Becord Office.
208 BRADDOCK. {1750.
the forest girded it like a mighty hedge^ or rather
like a paling of gaunt brown stems upholding a
canopy of green. All around spread illimitable
woods, wrapping hill, valley, and mountain. The
spot was an oasis in a desert of leaves, — if the name
oasis can be given to anything so rude and harsh. In
this rugged area, or ^^ clearing," all Braddock's force
was now assembled, amounting, regulars, provincials,
and sailors, to about twenty-two hundred men. The
two regiments, Halket's and Dunbar's, had been
completed by enlistment in Virginia to seven hun-
dred men each. Of Virginians there were nine
companies of fifty men, who found no favor in the
eyes of Braddock or his officers. To Ensign Allen
of Halket's regiment was assigned the duty of ** mak-
ing them as much like soldiers as possible,'' ^ — that
is, of drilling them like regulars. The general had
little hope of them, and informed Sir Thomas Rob-
inson that ^^ their slothful and languid disposition
renders them very imfit for military service, " — a
point on which he lived to change his mind. Thirty
saQors, whom Commodore Eeppel had lent him, were
more to his liking, and were in fact of value in many
ways. He had now about six himdred baggage-
horses, besides those of the artillery, all weakening
daily on their diet of leaves; for no grass was to be
found. There was great show of discipline, and little
real order. Braddock's executive capacity seems to
have been moderate, and his dogged, imperious
1 Onne, JaumaL
1755.] mS ILIr-HUMOR. 209
temper, rasped by disappointments, was in constant
irritation. " He looks upon the country, I believe, **
writes Washington, "as void of honor or honesty.
We have frequent disputes on this head, which are
maintained with warmth on both sides, especially on
his, as he is incapable of arguing without it, or
giving up any point he asserts, be it ever so incom-
patible with reason or common sense." ^ Braddock's
secretary, the younger Shirley, writing to his friend
Governor Morris, spoke thus irreverently of his
chief: "As the King said of a neighboring governor
of yours [Sharpe]^ when proposed for the command
of the American forces about a twelvemonth ago,
and recommended as a veiy honest man, though not
remarkably able, ^ a little more ability and a little
less honesty upon the present occasion might serve
our turn better. ' It is a joke to suppose that second-
ary officers can make amends for the defects of the
first; the mainspring must be the mover. As to the
others, I don't think we have much to boast; some
are insolent and ignorant, others capable, but rather
aiming at showing their own abilities than making a
proper use of them. I have a very great love for my
friend Orme, and think it uncommonly fortunate for
our leader that he is under the influence of so honest
and capable a man ; but I wish for the sake of the
public he had some more experience of business, par-
ticularly in America. I am greatly disgusted at see-
ing an expedition (as it is called), so ill-concerted
* Writings of Washington, ii. 77.
TOL. I. — 14.
210 BRADDOCK. [1755.
originally in England, so improperiy conducted since
in America."^
Captain Robert Orme, of whom Shirley speaks,
was aide-de-camp to Braddock, and author of a copi*
ous and excellent Journal of the expedition, now in
the British Museum.^ His portrait, painted at full
length by Sir Joshua Reynolds, hangs in the National
Gallery at London. He stands by his horse, a gallant
young figure, with a face pale, yet rather handsome,
booted to the knee, his scarlet coat, ample waistcoat,
and small three-cornered hat all heavy with gold lace.
The general had two other aides-de-camp. Captain
Roger Morris and Colonel George Washington,
whom he had invited, in terms that do him honor,
to become one of his military family.
It has been said that Braddock despised not only
provincials, but Indians. Nevertheless, he took
some pains to secure their aid, and complained that
Indian affairs had been so ill conducted by the prov-
inces that it was hard to gain their confidence.
This was true; the tribes had been alienated by
gross neglect. Had they been protected from
injustice and soothed by attentions and presents, the
Five Nations, Delawares, and Shawanoes would have
been retained as friends. But their complaints had
been slighted, and every gift begrudged. The trader
* Shirley the younger to Morris, 23 May, 1765, in Colonial Reeordt
•fPa., vi. 404.
* Printed by Sargent, in his ezceUent monograph of Braddock^f
Expedition.
1765.] INDIAN ALLIES. 211
Croghan brought, however, about fifty warriors,
with as many women and children, to the camp at
Fort Cumberland. They were objects of great
curiosity to the soldiers, who gazed with astonish-
ment on their faces, painted red, yellow, and black,
their ears slit and hung with pendants, and their
heads close shaved, except the feathered scalp-lock
at the crown. "In the day," saj^ an oflBcer, "they
are in our camp, and in the night they go into their
own, where they dance and make a most horrible
noise." Braddock received them several times in
his tent, ordered the guard to salute them, made
them speeches, caused cannon to be fired and drums
and fifes to play in their honor, regaled them with
rum, and gave them a bullock for a feast; whereupon,
being much pleased, they danced a war-dance, de-
scribed by one spectator as " droll and odd, showing
how they scalp and fight;" after which, says an-
other, " they set up the most horrid song or cry that
ever I heard. "^ These warriors, with a few others,
promised the general to join him on the march; but
he apparently grew tired of them, for a famous chief,
called -Scarroyaddy, afterwards complained: "He
looked upon us as dogs, and would never hear any-
thing that we said to him." Only eight of them
remained with him to the end.^
Another ally appeared at the camp. This was
1 Journal of a Naval Officer, in Sargent. The Expedition of Major*
General Braddock, being Extracts of Letters from an Officer (London.
1766).
* Statement of George Croghan, in Sargent, Appendix IIL
212 BRADDOCK. L176&
a personage long known in Western fireside story as
Captain Jack, the Black Hunter, or the Black Rifle.
It was said of him that having been a settler on the
farthest frontier, in the Valley of the Juniata, he
returned one evening to his cabin and found it burned
to the ground by Indians, and the bodies of his wife
and children lying among the ruins. He vowed
undying vengeance, raised a band of kindred spirits,
dressed and painted like Indians, and became the
scourge of the red man and the champion of the
white. But he and his wild crew, useful as they
might have been, shocked Braddock's sense of
military fitness; and he received them so coldly that
they left him.^
It was the tenth of June before the army was well
on its march. Three hundred axemen led the way,
to cut and clear the road; and the long train of pack-
horses, wagons, and cannon toiled on behind, over
the stumps, roots, and stones of the narrow track,
the regulars and provincials marching in the forest
close on either side. Squads of men were thrown
out on the flanks, and scouts ranged the woods to
guard against surprise; for, with all his scorn of
Indians and Canadians, Braddock did not neglect
reasonable precautions. Thus, foot by foot, they
advanced into the waste of lonely mountains that
divided the streams flowing to the Atlantic from
those flowing to the Gulf of Mexico, — a realm of
1 See teTeral traditional accoontB and contemporary letters in
HoBard't Pennsylvania Regutsr, It. 889, dOO, 416; y. 101.
;766.] THE MARCH. 211
forests ancient as the world. The road was but
twelve feet wide, and the line of march often extended
four miles. It was like a thin, long party-colored
snake, red, blue, and brown, trailing slowly through
the depth of leaves, creeping round inaccessible
heights, crawling over ridges, moving alwajrs in
dampness and shadow, by rivulets and waterfalls,
crags and chasms, gorges and shaggy steeps. In
glimpses only, through jagged boughs and flickering
leaves, did this wild primeval world reveal itself,
with its dark green mountains, flecked with the
morning mist, and its distant summits pencilled in
dreamy blue. The army passed the main Alleghany,
Meadow Moimtain, and Oreat Savage Mountain,
and traversed the funereal pine-forest afterwards
called the Shades of Death. No attempt was made
to interrupt their march, though the commandant of
Fort Duquesne had sent out parties for that purpose.
A few French and Indians hovered about them, now
and then scalping a straggler or inscribing filthy
insults on trees; while others fell upon the border
settlements which the advance of the troops had left
defenceless. Here they were more successful, butcher^
ing about thirty persons, chiefly women and children.
It was the eighteenth of June before the army
reached a place called the Little Meadows, less than
thirty miles from Fort Cumberland. Fever and
dysentery among the men, and the weakness and
worthlessness of many of the horses, joined to the
extreme difiBculty of the road, so retarded them that
214 BRADDOCE. ;i75&
they could move scarcely more than three miles a
day. Braddock consulted with Washington, who
advised him to leave the heavy baggage to follow as
it could, and push forward with a body of chosen
troops. This counsel was given in view of a report
that five hundoed regulars were on the way to rein-
force Fort Duquesne. It was adopted. Colonel
Dunbar was left to command the rear division, whose
powers of movement were now reduced to the lowest
point. The advance corps, consisting of about twelve
hundred soldiers, besides officers and drivers, began
its march on the nineteenth with such artillery as
was thought indispensable, thirty wagons, and a
large number of pack-horses. " The prospect," writes
Washington to his brother, ^^ conveyed infinite delight
to my mind, though I was excessively ill at the
time. But this prospect was soon clouded, and my
hopes brought very low indeed when I found that,
instead of pushing on with vigor without regarding
a little rough road, they were halting to level every
mole-hill, and to erect bridges over every brook, by
which means we were four days in getting twelve
miles." It was not till the seventh of July that
they neared the mouth of Turtle Creek, a stream
entering the Monongahela about eight miles from
the French fort. The way was direct and short, but
would lead them through a difficult country and a
defile so perilous that Braddock resolved to ford
the Monongahela to avoid this danger, and then
ford it again to reach his destination.
1756.] THE FREKCH FORT. 215
Fort Duqnesne stood on the point of land wbeie
the Alleghany and the Mcnoogahela join to form the
Ohio, and where now stands Pittsboig, with its
swarming population, its lestkas industries, the
clang of its foiges, and its chininejs Tomiting fool
smoke into the face of heaTen. At that earij dajr a
white flag fluttering over a cluster of palifttdm and
embankments betokened the fiist intrusion ei civilized
men upon a scene which, a few months before,
breathed the repose of a viigin wilderness, voiceless
but for the lapinng of waves upon the pebUes, or
the note of some Imiely bird. But now die sleep of
ages was broken, and bugle and drum told the
astonished forest that its doom was pronounced and
its days numbered. The fort was a compact little
work, solidly built and stzoi^, cooqiared with others
on the continent. It was a square of fcNir fasstioos,
with the water close on two sides, and the other two
protected by ravelins, ditch, glacis, and covered
way. The ramparts on ibeae sides were of squared
logs, filled in with earth, and ten feet or more thsdt
The two water sides were enclosed by a massive
stockade of upright logs, twelve feet faigfaf mortised
together and loopholed. The armameDt conristed of
a number of small canncm mounted on the tosdons^
A gate and drawbridge m the east ode gave acc«as
to the area within, which was surrounded bjr bar-
racks for the soldiers, cOcen^ qpsattn^ the k^dgings
of the commandant, a guard-house and a storehouse,
all built partly of logs and partly of boards. Them
216 BBADDOCE. [176&
were no casements, and the place was commanded
by a high woody hill beyond the Monongahela. The
forest had been cleared away to the distance of more
than a musket-shot from the ramparts, and the
stumps were hacked level with the ground. Here,
just outside the ditch, bark cabins had been built for
such of the troops and Canadians as could not find
room within; and the rest of the open space was
covered with Indian com and other crops. ^
The garrison consisted of a few companies of the
regular troops stationed permanently in the colony,
and to these were added a considerable number of
Canadians. ContrecoBur still held the command.'
Under him were three other captains, Beaujeu,
Dumas, and Ligneris. Besides the troops and Cana-
dians, eight hundred Indian warriors, mustered
from far and near, had built their wigwams and
camp-sheds on the open ground, or under the edge of
the neighboring woods, — very little to the advantage
of the young com. Some were baptized savages
settled in Canada, — Caughnawagas from Saut St.
Louis, Abenakis from St. Francis, and Hurons from
Lorette, whose chief bore the name of Anastase, in
honor of that Father of the Church. The rest were
1 M'Kirmey'i Detcripiion of Fort Dvtqvesne, 1766, in HtuarcTi
Peiuuylvanta Register, Tiii. 818. Letters of Robert Stobo, Hostage at
Fort Duquesne, 1764, in Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 141, 161. Stobo's
Plan of Fort Duquesne, 1764. Journal of Thomas Forbes, 1766. Letter
of Captain Haslet, 1768, in Olden Time, i. 184. Plan of Fort Dugwsne
in Public Record Office.
* See Appendix D.
1756.J A YOUNG CAPTIVE. 217
unmitigated heathen, — Pottawattamies and O jibwas
from the northern lakes under Charles Langlade, the
same bold partisan who had led them, three years
before, to attack the Miamis at Pickawillany;
Shawanoes and Mingoes from the Ohio ; and Ottawas
from Detroit, commanded, it is said, by that most
redoubtable of savages, Pontiac. The law of the
survival of the fittest had wrought on this hetero-
geneous crew through countless generations; and
with the primitive Indian, the fittest was the hardiest,
fiercest, most adroit, and most wily. Baptized and
heathen alike, they had just enjoyed a diversion
greatly to their taste. A young Pennsylvanian
named James Smith, a spirited and intelligent boy of
eighteen, had been waylaid by three Indians on the
western borders of the province and led captive to
the fort. When the party came to the edge of the
clearing, his captors, who had shot and scalped his
companion, raised the scalp-yell ; whereupon a din
of responsive whoops and firing of guns rose from all
the Indian camps, and their inmates swarmed out
like bees, while the French in the fort shot off
muskets and cannon to honor the occasion. The
unfortunate boy, the object of this obstreperous
rejoicing, presently saw a multitude of savages,
naked, hideously bedaubed with red, blue, black,
and brown, and armed with sticks or clubs, ranging
themselves in two long parallel lines, between which
he was told that he must run, the faster the better,
as they would beat him all the way. He ran with
218 BRADDOCK. [1765.
his best speed, under a shower of blows, and had
nearly reached the end of the course, when he was
knocked down. He tried to rise, but was blinded by
a handful of sand thrown into his face; and then
they beat him till he swooned. On coming to his
senses he found himself in the fort, with the surgeon
opening a vein in his arm and a crowd of French and
Indians looking on. In a few days he was able to
walk with the help of a stick ; and, coming out from
his quarters one morning, he saw a memorable
scene. ^
Three days before, an Indian had brought the
report that the English were approaching; and the
Chevalier de la Perade was sent out to reconnoitre.^
He returned on the next day, the seventh, with news
that they were not far distant. On the eighth the
brothers Normanville went out, and found that they
were within six leagues of the fort. The French
were in great excitement and alarm; but Contrecoeur
at length took a resolution, which seems to have
been inspired by Beaujeu.* It was determined to
meet the enemy on the march, and ambuscade them
if possible at the crossing of the Monongahela, or
some other favorable spot. Beaujeu proposed the
1 Account of RemarkabU Occtarreneei in the Life of Colonel James
Smith, written by himself. Perhaps the best of aU the numerouB
narratiyes of captiyes among the Indians.
' Rtlation de Godefroy, in Shea, BcUaille du MalangueuU (Mononga-
hela).
* Dumas, howerer, declares that Beaujeu adopted the plan at
ills suggestion. Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1766.
1766.] BEAUJEU. 219
•
plan to the Indians, and offered them the war-
hatchet; but they would not take it. "Do you want
to die, my father, and sacrifice us besides?" That
night they held a council, and in the morning again
refused to go. Beaujeu did not despair. "I am
determined," he exclaimed, "to meet the English.
What I will you let your father go alone ? " * The
greater part caught fire at his words, promised to
follow him, and put on their war-paint. Beaujeu
received the communion, then dressed himself like a
savage, and joined the clamorous throng. Open
barrels of gunpowder and bullets were set before the
gate of the fort, and James Smith, painfully climbing
the rampart with the help of his stick, looked down
on the warrior rabble as, huddling together, wild
with excitement, they scooped up the contents to fill
their powder-horns and pouches. Then, band after
band, they filed off along the forest track that led to
the ford of the Monongahela. They numbered six
hundred and thirty-seven; and with them went
thirty-six French officers and cadets, seventy-two
regular soldiers, and a hundred and forty-six Cana-
dians, or about nine hundred in all.^ At eight
o'clock the tumult was over. The broad clearing
lay lonely and still, and Contrecoeur, with what was
^ Hdaiion depuis le DSpart de$ Trouppes de Quibec jxtaqu'au SO du
Mois de Septembre, 1766.
* Liste des Officiers, Cadets, SoldttU, Miliciens, et Sauwiges qui com'
posaient le D€tachement qui a ii€ au devant d'un Corps de 2,000 AngloU
a 3 Lieues du Fort Duquesne, le 9 JuilUt^ 1766 ; joint a la Lettre de M.
Bigot du 6 AoQt, 1766.
220 BRADDOCK. [1755.
left of his garriBon, waited in suspense for the
issue.
It was near one o'clock when Braddock crossed
the Monongahela for the second time. If the French
made a stand anywhere, it would be, he thought, at
the fording-place; but Lieutenant-Colonel Gage,
whom he sent across with a strong advance-party,
found no enemy, and quietly took possession of the
farther shore. Then the main body followed. To
impose on the imagination of the French scouts, who
were doubtless on the watch, the movement was
made with studied regularity and order. The sun
was cloudless, and the men were inspirited by the
prospect of near triumph. Washington afterwards
spoke with admiration of the spectacle.^ The
music, the banners, the mounted officers, the troop
of light cavalry, the naval detachment, the red-
coated regulars, the blue-coated Virginians, the
wagons and tumbrils, cannon, howitzers, and coe-
homs, the train of packhorses, and the droves of
cattle, passed in long procession through the rippling
shallows, and slowly entered the bordering forest.
Here, when all were over, a short halt was ordered
for rest and refreshment.
Why had not Beaujeu defended the ford? This
was his intention in the morning; but he had been
met by obstacles, the nature of which is not wholly
clear. His Indians, it seems, had proved refractory.
1 Compare the account of another eye-witness, Dr. Walker, in
JSTasarcft Ptnmylvania Register, tL lOi.
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1755.] THE CRISIS NEAR. 221
Three hundred of them left him, went off in another
direction, and did not rejoin him till the English had
crossed the river. ^ Hence perhaps it was that, hav-
ing left Fort Duquesne at eight o'clock, he spent
half the day in marching seven miles, and was more
than a mile from the fording-place when the British
reached the eastern shore. The delay, from what-
ever cause arising, cost him the opportunity of laying
an ambush either at the ford or in the gullies and
ravines that channelled the forest through which
Braddock was now on the point of marching.
Not far from the bank of the river, and close by
the British line of march, there was a clearing and
a deserted house that had once belonged to the trader
Fraser. Washington remembered it well. It was
here that he found rest and shelter on the winter
journey homeward from his mission to Fort Le Bqeuf .
He was in no less need of rest at this moment; for
recent fever had so weakened him that he could
hardly sit his horse. From Fraser's house to Fort
Duquesne the distance was eight miles by a rough
path, along which the troops were now beginning to
move after their halt. It ran inland for a little,
then curved to the left, and followed a course paral-
lel to the river along the base of a line of steep hills
that here bordered the valley. These and all the
country were buried in dense and heavy forest,
choked with bushes and the carcasses of fallen trees.
Braddock has been charged with marching blindly
^ Relation de God^oy^ in Shea, Bataille du MaiangueuU.
222 BRADDOCK. [1766.
into an ambuscade; but it was not so. There was
no ambuscade; and had there been one, he would
have found it. It is true that he did not reconnoitre
the woods very far in advance of the head of the
column; yet, with this exception, he made elaborate
dispositions to prevent surprise. Several guides,
with six Virginian light horsemen, led the way.
Then, a musketnshot behind, came the vanguard;
then three hundred soldiers under Gage; then a
large body of axemen, under Sir John Sinclair, to
open the road; then two cannon with tumbrils and
tool-wagons; and lastly the rear-guard, closing the
line, while flanking-parties ranged the woods on both
sides. This was the advance-column. The main
body followed with little or no interval The artil-
lery and wagons moved along the road, and the
troops filed through the woods close on either hand.
Numerous flanking-parties were thrown out a hun-
dred yards and more to right and left; while, in the
space between them and the marching column, the
pack-horses and cattle, with their drivers, made
their way painfully among the trees and thickets;
since, had they been allowed to follow the road, the
line of march would have been too long for mutual
support. A body of regulars and provincials brought
up the rear.
Gage, with his advance column, had just passed a
wide and bushy ravine that crossed their path, and
the van of the main column was on the point of
entering it, when the guides and light horsemen in
1756.] THE BATTLE. 2$58
the front suddenly fell back; and the engineer,
Gordon, then engaged in marking out the road, saw
a man, dressed like an Indian, but wearing the
gorget of an o£Scer, bounding forward along the
path.^ He stopped when he discovered the head of
the column, turned, and waved his hat. The forest
behind was swarming with French and savages. At
the signal of the officer, who was probably Beaujeu,
they yelled the war-whoop, spread themselves to
right and left, and opened a sharp fire under cover
of the trees. Gage's column wheeled deliberately
into line, and fired several volleys with great steadi-
ness against the now invisible assailants. Few of
them were hurt; the trees caught the shot, but the
noise was deafening under the dense arches of the
forest. The greater part of the Canadians, to borrow
the words of Dumas, "fled shamefully, crying,
* Sauve qui pent I ' " ^ Volley followed volley, and at
the third Beaujeu dropped dead. Gage's two cannon
were now brought to bear, on which the Indians, like
the Canadians, gave way in confusion, but did not,
like them, abandon the field. The close scarlet
ranks of the English were plainly to be seen through
the trees and the smoke; they were moving forward,
cheering lustily, and shouting, "God save the King! "
Dumas, now chief in command, thought that all was
lost. "I advanced," he says, "with the assurance
^ Journal of the Proceeding of the Detachment of Seamen, in Sargent.
« Dumas au Minittre, 24 Juillet, 1756. Contrecctur a Vaudreuil, 14
JuiUet, 1766. See Appendix D, where extracts are given.
224 BRADDOCK. [1755.
that comes from despair, exciting by voice and
gesture the few soldiers that remained. The fire of
mj platoon was so sharp that the enemy seemed
astonished. '^ The Indians, encouraged, began to
rally. The French officers who commanded them
showed admirable courage and address; and while
Dumas and Lignens, with the regulars and what
was left of the Canadians, held the ground in front,
the savage warriors, screeching their war-cries,
swarmed through the forest along both flanks of the
English, hid behind trees, bushes, and fallen trunks,
or crouched in gillies and ravines, and opened a
deadly fire on the helpless soldiery, who, themselves
completely visible, could see no enemy, and wasted
volley after volley on the impassive trees. The most
destructive fire came from a hill on the English right,
where the Indians lay in multitudes, firing from
their lurking-places on the living target below. But
the invisible death was everywhere, in front, fiank,
and rear. The British cheer was heard no more.
The troops broke their ranks and huddled together in
a bewildered mass, shrinking from the bullets that
cut them down by scores.
When Braddock heard the firing in the front, he
pushed forward with the main body to the support of
Oage, leaving four hundred men in the rear, under
Sir Peter Halket, to guard the baggage. At the
moment of his arrival Gage's soldiers had abandoned
their two cannon, and were falling back to escape
the concentrated fire of the Indians. Meeting the
1756.] GALLANTRY OP VIRGINIANS. 225
advanoing troops, they tried to find cover behind
them. This threw the whole into confusion. The
men of the two regiments became mixed together;
and in a short time the entire force, except the
Virginians and the troops left with Halket, were
massed in several dense bodies within a small space
of ground, facing some one way and some another,
and all alike exposed without shelter to the bullets
that pelted them like hail. Both men and officers
were new to this blind and frightful warfare of the
savage in his native woods. To charge the Indians
in their hiding-places would have been useless. They
would have eluded pursuit with the agility of wild-
oats, and swarmed back, like angry hornets, the
moment that it ceased. The Virginians alone were
equal to the emergency. Fighting behind trees like
the Indians themselves, they might have held the
enemy in check till order could be restored, had not
Braddock, furious at a proceeding that shocked all
his ideas of courage and discipline, ordered them,
with oaths, to form into line. A body of them
under Captain Waggoner made a dash for a fallen
tree lying in the woods, far out towards the lurking-
places of the Indians, and, crouching behind the
huge trunk, opened fire ; but the regulars, seeing the
smoke among the bushes, mistook their best friends
for the enemy, shot at them from behind, killed
many, and forced the rest to return. A few of the
regulars also tried in their clumsy way to fight
behind trees; but Braddock beat them with hii
VOL I. — 15
226 BRADDOCE. (1756.
sword, and compelled them to stand with the rest,
an open mark for the Indians. The panic increased;
the soldiers crowded together, and the bullets spent
themselves in a mass of human bodies. Commands,
entreaties, and threats were lost upon them. ^ We
would fight,'* some of them answered, "if we could
see anybody to fight with." Nothing was visible
but puffs of smoke. Officers and men who had stood
all the afternoon under fire afterwards declared that
they could not be sure they had seen a single Indian.
Braddock ordered Lieutenant-Colonel Burton to
attack the hill where the puffs of smoke were
thickest, and the bullets most deadly. With infinite
difficulty that brave officer induced a hundred men to
follow him; but he was soon disabled by a wound,
and they all faced about. The artillerymen stood
for some time by their guns, which did great damage
to the trees and little to the enemy. The mob of
soldiers, stupefied with terror, stood panting, their
foreheads beaded with sweat, loading and firing
mechanically, sometimes into the air, sometimes
among their own comrades, many of whom they
killed. The ground, strewn with dead and wounded
men, the bounding of maddened horses, the clatter
and roar of musketry and cannon, mixed with the
spiteful report of rifles and the yells that rose from
the indefatigable throats of six hundred unseen
savages, formed a chaos of anguish and terror
scarcely paralleled even in Indian war. "I cannot
describe the horrors of that scene," one of Braddock's
1755.] HAVOC AMONG OFFICERS. 227
o£Bcers wrote three weeks after; **no pen could do
it. The yell of the Indians is fresh on my ear, and
the terrific sound will haunt me till the hour of my
dissolution."^
Braddock showed a furious intrepidity. Mounted
on horseback, he dashed to and fro, storming like a
madman. Four horses were shot under him, and he
mounted a fifth. Washington seconded his chief
with equal courage; he too no doubt using strong
language, for he did not measure words when the
fit was on him. He escaped as by miracle. Two
horses were killed under him, and four bullets tore
his clothes. The conduct of the British officers was
above praise. Nothing could surpass their undaunted
self-devotion; and in their vain attempts to lead on
the men, the havoc among them was frightful. Sir
Peter Halket was shot dead. His son, a lieutenant
in his regiment, stooping to raise the body of his
father, was shot dead in turn. Young Shirley,
Braddock's secretary, was pierced through the brain.
Orme and Morris, his aides-de-camp, Sinclair, the
quartermaster-general. Gates and Gage, both after-
wards conspicuous on opposite sides in the War of
the Revolution, and Gladwin, who, eight years later,
defended Detroit against Pontiac, were all wounded.
Of eighty-six officers, sixty-three were killed or dis-
abled ;2 while out of thirteen hundred and seventy-
* Leslie to a Merchant of Philadelphia, 30 July, 1756, in HazanTs
Pennsylvania Register, y. 101. Leslie was a lieutenant of the Fortj-
fourth.
* A List of the Officen who were present, and of those kiUed and
228 BRADDOCK. [1755.
three non-commissioned officers and privates, only
four hundred and fifty-nine came ofif unharmed.^
Braddock saw that all was lost. To save the wreck
of his force from annihilation, he at last commanded
a retreat; and as he and such of his officers as were
left strove to withdraw the half-frenzied crew in
some semblance of order, a bullet struck him down.
The gallant bulldog fell from his horse, shot through
the arm into the lungs. It is said, though on evi-
dence of no weight, that the bullet came from one
of his own men. Be this as it may, there he lay
among the bushes, bleeding, gasping, unable even
to curse. He demanded to be left where he was.
Captain Stewart and another provincial bore him
between them to the rear.
It was about this time that the mob of soldiers,
having been three hours under fire, and having spent
their ammunition, broke away in a blind frenzy,
rushed back towards the ford, "and when," says
Washington, "we endeavored to rally them, it was
with as much success as if we had attempted to stop
the wild bears of the mountains." They dashed
across, helter-skelter, plunging through the water to
the farther bank, leaving wounded comrades, cannon,
wounded, m the Action on the Banks of the Monongahda, Jtdy, 1766
(Pablic Record Office, America and West Indies, Ixxzii).
^ Statement of the engineer, Mackellar. By another account,
oat of a total, officers and men, of 1,460, the nnmber of all ranks
who escaped was 683. Braddock's force, originally 1,200, was in«
creased, a few days before the battle, by detachments from
Dunbar.
1766.] BATTLE-FIELD ABANDONED. 229
baggage, the military chest, and the general's papers,
a prey to the Indians. About fifty of these followed
to the edge of the river. Dumas and Ligneris, who
had now only about twenty Frenchmen with them,
made no attempt to pursue, and went back to the
fort, because, says Contrecoeur, so many of the
Canadians had "retired at the first fire." The field,
abandoned to the savages, was a pandemonium of
pillage and murder. ^
James Smith, the young prisoner at Fort Duquesne,
^ " NoQs primes le parti de nous retirer en yue de rallier notre
petite arm^e." — Dumas au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1766.
On the defeat of Braddock, besides anthorities already cited, —
ShirUif to RobtMon, 6 November, 1766, accompanying the plans of
the battle reproduced in this volume (Public Record Office, America
and West Indies, Ixxxii.). The plans were drawn at Shirley's request
by Patrick Mackellar, chief engineer of the expedition, who was
with QtLge in the advance column when the fight began. They were
examined and fully approved by the chief surviving officers, and
they closely correspond with another plan made by the aide-de-
camp Orme, — which, however, shows only the beginning of the
affair.
Report of the Court of Inquiry into the Behavior of the Troops at the
Monongahela. Letters of Dinwiddie. Letters of Gage, Burd to Mor-
ris, 26 July, 1766. Sinclair to Robinson, 3 September. Rutherford to
, 12 July, Wntings of Washington, ii. 68-08. Review of Mili-
tary Operations in North America, Entick, i. 146. Gentleman's
Magazine (1766), 378, 426. Letter to a Friend on the Ohio Drfeat
(Boston, 1766).
Contreccmr a Vaudreuil, 14 Juillet, 1766. Estat de rArtillerie, etc.,
qui se sont trouves sur la Champ de BataiUe. Vaudreuil au Ministre,
6 Ao^, 1766. Bigot au Ministre, 27 Ao^. Relation du Combat du
9 Juillet. Relation depuis le Depart des Trouppes de QuAec jusqyfau
90 du Mois de Septembre. Lotbinihre a d'Argenson, 24 Octobre. RelO'
(ton officielle imprimSe au Louvre. Relation de Godefroy (Shea). Ex-
traits du Registre du Fort Duquesne (Ibid.). Relation de diverses
Mourements (Ibid.). Pouchot, i. 37.
280 BRADDOCK. [176S,
had passed a day of suspense, waiting the insult.
*^In the afternoon I again observed a great noise and
commotion in the fort, and, though at that time I
could not understand French, I found it was the
voice of joy and triumph, and feared that they had
received what I called bad news. I had observed
some of the old-country soldiers speak Dutch; as I
spoke Dutch, I went to one of them and asked him
what was the news. He told me that a runner had
just arrived who said that Braddock would certainly
be defeated; that the Indians and French had sur-
rounded him, and were concealed behind trees and
in gullies, and kept a constant fire upon the English;
and that they saw the English falling in heaps; and
if they did not take the river, which was the only
gap, and make their escape, there would not be one
man left alive before sundown. Some time after
this, I heard a number of scalp-halloos, and saw a
company of Indians and French coming in. I ob-
served they had a great number of bloody scalps,
gprenadiers' caps, British canteens, bayonets, etc.,
with them. They brought the news that Braddock
was defeated. After that another company came in,
which appeared to be about one hundred, and chiefly
Indians ; and it seemed to me that almost every one
of this company was carrying scalps. After this
came another company with a number of wagon-
horses, and also a gpreat many scalps. Those that
were coming in and those that had arrived kept a
constant firing of small arms, and also the great
176ft.] AFTER THE BATTLE. 281
guns in the fort, which were accompanied with the
most hideous shouts and yells from all quarters, so
that it appeared to me as though the infernal regions
had broke loose.
^ About sundown I beheld a small party coming in
with about a dozen prisoners, stripped naked, with
their hands tied behind their backs and their faces
and part of their bodies blacked; these prisoners they
burned to death on the bank of Alleghany River,
opposite the fort. I stood on the fort wall until I
beheld them begin to bum one of these men; they
had him tied to a stake, and kept touching him with
firebrands, red-hot irons, etc., and he screaming in a
most doleful manner, the Indians in the meantime
yelling like infernal spirits. As this scene appeared
too shocking for me to behold, I retired to my lodg-
ing, both sore and sorry. When I came into my
lodgings I saw Russel's Seven Sermons, which they
had brought from the field of battle, which a French-
man made a present of to me."
The loss of the French was slight, but fell chiefly
on the officers, three of whom were killed, and four
wounded. Of the regular soldiers, all but four
escaped untouched. The Canadians suffered still
less, in proportion to their numbers, only five of
them being hurt. The Indians, who won the victory,
bore the principal loss. Of those from Canada,
twenty-seven were killed and wounded; while the
casualties among the western tribes are not reported.^
^ Liste de$ Officiers, Soldats, Miltdeni, et Sauvagt$ de Canada qui
imt^tu€$et hUsUi U 9 JtiOlet, 1756.
232 BRADDOCK. [1756.
All of these last went off the next morning with
their plunder and scalps, leaving Contreeoeur in great
anxiety lest the remnant of Braddock's troops, rein-
forced by the division under Dunbar, should attack
him again. His doubts would have vanished had he
known the condition of his defeated enemy.
In the pain and languor of a mortal wound, Brad-
dock showed unflinching resolution. His bearers
stopped with him at a favorable spot beyond the
Monongahela; and here he hoped to maintain his
position till the arrival of Dunbar. By the efforts
of the officers about a hundred men were collected
around him ; but to keep them there was impossible.
Within an hour they abandoned him, and fled like
the rest. Gage, however, succeeded in rallying
about eighty beyond the other f ording-place ; and
Washington, on an order from Braddock, spurred his
jaded horse towards the camp of Dunbar to demand
wagons, provisions, and hospital stores.
Fright overcame fatigue. The fugitives toiled on
all night, pursued by spectres of horror and despair;
hearing still the war-whoops and the shrieks; pos-
sessed with the one thought of escape from this
wilderness of death. In the morning some order
was restored. Braddock was placed on a horse;
then, the pain being insufferable, he was carried on
a litter. Captain Orme having bribed the carriers by
the promise of a guinea and a bottle of rum apiece.
Early in the succeeding night, such as had not fainted
on the way reached the deserted farm of Gist. Here
1755.] PANIC. 233
they met wagons and provisions, with a detachment
of soldiers sent by Dunbar, whose camp was six
miles farther on; and Braddock ordered them to go
to the relief of the stragglers left behind.
At noon of that day a number of wagoners and
pack-horse drivers had come to Dunbar's camp with
wild tidings of rout and ruin. More fugitives fol-
lowed; and soon after a wounded officer was brought
in upon a sheet. The drums beat to arms. The
camp was in commotion; and many soldiers and
teamsters took to flight, in spite of the sentinels,
who tried in vain to stop them.^ There was a still
more disgraceful scene on the next day, after Brad-
dock, with the wreck of his force, had arrived.
Orders were given to destroy such of the wagons^
stores, and ammunition as could not be carried back
at once to Fort Cumberland. Whether Dunbar or
the dying general gave these orders is not clear; but
it is certain that they were executed with shameful
alacrity. More than a hundred wagons were burned;
cannon, coehoms, and shells were burst or buried;
barrels of gunpowder were staved, and the contents
thrown into a brook; provisions were scattered
tiirough the woods and swamps. Then the whole
command began its retreat over the mountains to
Fort Cumberland, sixty miles distant. This pro-
ceeding, for which, in view of the condition of
Braddock, Dunbar must be held answerable, excited
^ Depositions of Matthew Laird , Michael Hoover, and Jacob Hoover^
Wagoners, in Colonial Records of Pa,, vi. 482.
284 BRADDOCR. U765.
the utmost indignation among the colonists. If he
could not advance, they thought, he might at least
have fortified himself and held his ground till the
provinces could send him help; thus covering the
frontier, and holding French war-parties in check.
Braddock's last moment was near. Orme, who,
though himself severely wounded, was with him till
his death, told Franklin that he was totally silent all
the first day, and at night said only, *'Who would
have thought it?" that all the next day he was again
silent, till at last he muttered, ''We shall better
know how to deal with them another time," and died
a few minutes after. He had nevertheless found
breath to give orders at Gist's for the succor of the
men who had dropped on the road. It is said, too,
that in his last hours ''he could not bear the sight of
a red coat," but murmured praises of "the blues,"
or Virginians, and said that he hoped he should live
to reward them.^ He died at about eight o'clock in
the evening of Sunday, the thirteenth. Dunbar had
begun his retreat that morning, and was then en-
camped near the Great Meadows. On Monday the
dead commander was buried in the road ; and men,
horses, and wagons passed over his grave, effacing
every sign of it, lest the Indians should find and
mutilate the body.
Colonel James Innes, commanding at Fort Cum-
berland, where a crowd of invalids with soldiers*
1 Boiling to his Son, 18 August, 1755. Boiling wu a Virginian
gentleman whose son was at school in England.
\
1755.] NEWS OF THE ROUT. 286
wives and other women had been left when the
expedition marched, heard of the defeat, only two
days after it happened, from a wagoner who had fled
from the field on horseback. He at once sent a note
of six lines to Lord Fairfax: **I have this moment
received the most melancholy news of the defeat of
our troops, the General killed, and numbers of our
officers ; our whole artillery taken. In short, the ac-
count I have received is so very bad, that as, please
God, I intend to make a stand here, 'tis highly
necessary to raise the militia everywhere to defend
the frontiers." A boy whom he sent out on horse-
back met more fugitives, and came back on the four-
teenth with reports as vague and disheartening as
the first. Innes sent them to Dinwiddie.^ Some
days after, Dunbar and his train arrived in miserable
disorder, and Fort Cumberland was turned into a
hospital for the shattered fragments of a routed and
ruined army.
On the sixteenth a letter was brought in haste to
one Buchanan at Carlisle, on the Pennsylvanian
frontier: —
Sib, — I thought it proper to let you know that I was
in the battle where we were defeated. And we had about
eleven hundred and fifty private men, besides officers and
others. Aod we were attacked the ninth day about twelve
o'clock, and held till about three in the afternoon, and
then we were forced to retreat, when I suppose we might
bring off about three hundred whole men, besides a vast
1 Inne* to DinwiddU, 14 Jultf, 1766l
286 BRADDOCK. [176A.
many wounded. Most of our officers were either wounded
or killed; General Braddock is wounded, but I hope not
mortal ; and Sir John Sinclair and many others, but I
hope not mortal. All the train is cut off in a manner.
Sir Peter Halket and his son, Captain Poison, Captain
G^then, Captain Kose, Captain Tatten killed, and many
others. Captain Ord of the train is wounded, but I hope
not mortal. We lost all our-iartillery entirely, and every-
thing else.
To Mr. John Smith and Buchannon, and give it to the
next post, and let him show this to Mr. Q«orge Gibson in
Lancaster, and Mr. Bingham, at the sign of the Ship, and
you'll oblige.
Yours to command,
John Campbell, Messenger,^
The evil tidings quickly reached Philadelphia,
where such confidence had prevailed that certain
over-zealous persons had begun to collect money for
fireworks to celebrate the victo^. Two of these,
brother physicians named Bond, came to Franklin
and asked him to subscribe; but the sage looked
doubtful. *' Why, the devil I " said one of them,
**you surely don't suppose the fort will not be
taken?" He reminded them that war is always
uncertain; and the subscription was deferred.^ The
governor laid the news of the disaster before his
Council, telling them at the same time that his oppo-
nents in the Assembly would not believe it, and had
insulted him in the street for giving it currency.^
1 CoUmial Records of Pa., yL 481.
* Autobiography 'of Franklin,
• Colonial Records of Pa,, yL 480.
\
1766.] ORME AND WASHINGTON. 287
Dinwiddle remained tranquil at Williamsburg,
sure that all would go well. The brief note of
Innes, forwarded by Lord Fairfax, first disturbed his
dream of triumph; but on second thought he took
comfort. *^ I am willing to think that account was
from a deserter who, in a great panic, represented
what his fears suggested. I wait with impatience
for another express from Fort Cumberland, which I
expect will greatly contradict the former." The
news got abroad, and the slaves showed sig^ of
excitement. ^^The villany of the negroes on any
emergency is what I always feared," continues the
governor. ^ An example of one or two at first may
prevent these creatures entering into combinations
and wicked designs. " ^ And he wrote to Lord Hali-
fax: ^*The negro slaves have been very audacious
on the news of defeat on the Ohio. These poor
creatures imagine the French will give them their
freedom. We have too many here ; but I hope we
shall be able to keep them in proper subjection.**
Suspense grew intolerable. "It*s monstrous they
should be so tardy and dilatory in sending down any
farther account." He sent Major Colin Campbell
for news ; when, a day or two later, a courier brought
him two letters, one from Orme, and the other from
Washington, both written at Fort Cumberland on the
eighteenth. The letter of Orme began thus: "My
dear Governor, I am so extremely ill in bed with the
wound I have received that I am under the necessity
^ DinwiddU to CoUmel Charles Carter, 18 July, 176&
288 BRADDOCE. [175Qi
of employing my friend Captain Dobson as my
scribe.'* Then he told the wretched story of defeat
and humiliation. *^ The officers were absolutely sac-
rificed by their unparalleled good behavior ; advancing
before their men sometimes in bodies, and sometimes
separately, hoping by such an example to engage the
soldiers to follow them; but to no purpose. Poor
Shirley was shot through the head, Captain Morris
very much wounded. Mr. Washington had two
horses shot under him, and his clothes shot through
in several places ; behaving the whole time with the
gpreatest courage and resolution.'*
Washington wrote more briefly, saying that, as
Orme was giving a full account of the affair, it was
needless for him to repeat it. Like many others in
the fight, he greatly underrated the force of the
enemy, which he placed at three hundred, or about a
tiiird of the actual number, — a natural error, as most
of the assailants were invisible. " Our poor Virginians
behaved like men, and died like soldiers; for I
believe that out of three companies that were there
that day, scarce thirty were left alive. Captain
Peronney and all his officers down to a corporal were
killed. Captain Poison shared almost as hard a fate,
for only one of his escaped. In short, the das-
tardly behavior of the English soldiers exposed all
those who were inclined to do their duty to almost
certain death. It is imagined (I believe with great
justice, too) that two thirds of both killed and
woimded received their shots from our own cowardly
17M.] DINWIDDIE'S REPLIES. 289
dogs of soldieiB, who gathered themselves into a
body, contrary to orders, ten and twelve deep, would
then level, fire, and shoot down the men before
them."*
To Orme, Dinwiddle replied : ^^ I read your letter
with tears in my eyes; but it gave me much pleasure
to see your name at the bottom, and more so when I
observed by the postscript that your wound is not
dangerous. But pray, dear sir, is it not possible by
a second attempt to retrieve the great loss we have
sustained? I presume the General's chariot is at
the fort In it you may come here, and my house is
heartily at your command. Pray take care of your
valuaUe health; keep your spirits up, and I doubt
not of your recovery. My wife and girls join me in
most sincere respects and joy at your being so well,
and I always am, with great truth, dear friend, your
affectionate humble servant."
To Washington he is less effusive, though he had
known him much longer. He begins, it is true,
^^Dear Washington," and congratulates him on his
escape; but soon grows formal, and asks: **Pray, sir,
with the number of them remaining, is there no
possibility of doing something on the other side of
the mountains before the winter months? Surely
you must mistake. Colonel Dunbar will not march
to winter-quarters in the middle of summer, and
leave the frontiers exposed to the invasions of the
^ These extracts are taken from the two letters preserved in the
Pablic Record Oi&ce, America and Wett Indie$, \xx\y., iTTxiJ,
240 BRADDOCK. QTSfiw
enemy ! No ; he is a better officer, and I have a
different opinion of him. I sincerely wish you health
and happiness, and am, with great respect, sir, your
obedient, humble servant."
Washington's letter had contained the astonishing
announcement that Dunbar meant to abandon the
frontier and march to Philadelphia. Dinwiddie,
much disturbed, at once wrote to that officer, though
without betraying any knowledge of his intention.
^*Sir, the melancholy account of the defeat of our
forces gave me a sensible and real concern " — on
which he enlarges for a while ; then suddenly changes
style: **Dear Colonel, is there no method left to
retrieve the dishonor done to the British arms? As
you now command all the forces that remain, are you
not able, after a proper refreshment of your men, to
make a second attempt? You have four months now
to come of the best weather of the year for such an
expedition. What a fine field for honor will Colonel
Dunbar have to confirm and establish his character as
a brave officer." Then, after suggesting plans of
operation, and entering into much detail, the fervid
governor concludes : '^ It gives me great pleasure that
under our great loss and misfortunes the command de-
volves on an officer of so great military judgment and
established character. With my sincere respect and
hearty wishes for success to all your proceedings, I
am, worthy sir, your most obedient, humble servant."
Exhortation and flattery were lost on Dunban
Dinwiddie received from him in reply a short, dry
1755 ] CONDUCT OF DUNBAR, 241
note, dated on the first of August, and acquainting
him that he should march for Philadelphia on the
second. This, in fact, he did, leaving the fort to be
defended by invalids and a few Virginians. ^^I
acknowledge," says Dinwiddle, ^'I was not brought
up to arms; but I think common sense would have
prevailed not to leave the frontiers exposed after
having opened a road over the mountains to the Ohio,
by which the enemy can the more easily invade tu.
. . . Your great colonel," he writes to Orme, "is
gone to a peaceful colony, and left our frontiers
open. . . . The whole conduct of Colonel Dunbar
appears to me monstrous. ... To march off all the
regulars, and leave the fort and frontiers to be
defended by four hundred sick and wounded, and
the poor remains of our provincial forces, appears
to me absurd."^
He found some comfort from the burgesses, who
gave him forty thousand pounds, and would, he
thinks, have given a hundred thousand if another
attempt against Fort Duquesne had been set afoot.
Shirley, too, whom the death of Braddock had made
commander-in-chief, approved the governor's pl^n of
renewing offensive operations, and instructed Dunbar
to that effect; ordering him, however, should they
prove impracticable, to march for Albany in aid of
the Niagara expedition.^ The order found him safe
^ Dinwiddle's view of Dunbar's conduct Is fully justified by th«
letters of Shirley, Ooyemor Morris, and Dunbar himself.
s Ordert for CoUmel Thonuu Dunbar, 12 Augutt, 1766. These
VOL. I. — 16
242 BRADDOCE. [170&
in Philadelphia. Here he lingered for a while; then
marched to join the northern army, moving at a pace
which made it certain that he could not arrive in
time to be of the least use.
Thus the frontier was left unguarded; and soon,
as Dinwiddle had foreseen, there burst upon it a
storm of blood and fire.
fluperaede a preyious order of August 6, by which Shirley had
directed Dunhar to march northward at once.
CHAPTER Vm.
1766.
BEMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS.
Statb or AoADiA. — Thbeatenbd Intasion. «• PSRiL or THE Emo.
li8h: thsib Pulks. — French Fobts to be attacked.—
BsAUstjouB Aim IT8 OccuPANTS. — Fbbnch Tbeatmsnt of the
AcADLANS. — John Winslow. — Siege and Captubb or BsAusi-
jouB. — Attitude of Acadians. — Influence of thbib Pbissts :
THEY REFUSE THE OaTH OF AlLEGIANCB ; THEIB CONDITION
AND ChABAOTEB. — PbETBNDED NsUTBALS. — MODSBATION OF
EnOLISH AuTHOBITIES. — TkE AOADIAN8 PEB8I8T IN THEIB
BsFUSAL. — Enemies ob Subjects 1 — Choice of the Acadi-
▲NS. — The Consequence. — Treib Bemoyal Dstebmined. —
WnrsLOw at Gband Pui. — Conference with Murray. —
Summons to the Inhabitants: their Seizure; their
Embarkation ; their Fate ; their Treatment in Cajtada.
misafprehension concerning them.
By the plan which the Duke of Cumberland had
ordained and Braddock had announced in the Council
at Alexandria, four blows were to be struck at once
to force back the French boundaries, lop oS the
dependencies of Canada, and reduce her from a vast
territory to a petty province. The first stroke had
failed, and had shattered the hand of the striker; it
remains to see what fortune awaited the others.
It was long since a project of purging Acadia of
French influence had germinated in the fertile mind
of Shirley. We have seen in a former chapter the
244 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1756.
condition of that afflicted province. Several thou-
sands of its inhabitants, wrought upon by intriguing
agents of the French government; taught by their
priests that fidelity to King Louis was inseparable
from fidelity to God, and that to swear allegiance to
the British Crown was eternal perdition ; threatened
with plunder and death at the hands of the savages
whom the ferocious missionary, Le Loutre, held over
them in terror, — had abandoned, sometimes willingly,
but oftener under constraint, the fields which they
and their fathers had tilled, and crossing the boundary
line of the Missaguash, had placed themselves under
the French flag planted on the hill of Beausdjour.^
Here, or in the neighborhood, many of them had
remained, wretched and half starved; while others
had been transported to Cape Breton, Isle St.
Jean, or the coasts of the Gulf, — not so far, how-
ever, that they could not on occasion be used to aid
in an invasion of British Acadia.^ Those of their
countrymen who stiU Uved under the Britdsh flag
were chiefly the inhabitants of the district of Mines
and of the valley of the river Annapolis, who, with
1 See anU, Chapter IV.
* Rameaa (La France aux Ct^onies, i. 03) estimates the total
emigration from 1748 to 1766 at 8)600 souls, — which number seems
much too large. This writer, though vehemently anti-English,
gives the following passage from a letter of a high French official :
" que les Acadiens e'migr^s et en grande mis^re comptaient se retirer
k Qu^ec et demander des terres, mais il conviendrait mieuz qu'ils
restent oh ils sont, afin d'avoir le voisinage de I'Acadie bien peupld
et d^frich^, pour appro visionner Tlsle Royale [Cape Breton] et
tomber en cas de guerre sur I'Acadie." Rameau, i. 133.
1765.] POSITION OP THE ACADIANS. 246
other less important settlements, numbered a little
more than nine thousand souls. We have shown
already, by the evidence of the French themselves,
that neither they nor their emigrant countrymen had
been oppressed or molested in matters temporal or
spiritual, but that the English authorities, recogniz-
ing their value as an industrious population, had
labored to reconcile them to a change of rulers which
on the whole was to their advantage. It has been
shown also how, with a heartless perfidy and a reck-
less disregard of their welfare and safety, the French
government and its agents labored to keep them
hostile to the Crown of which it had acknowledged
them to be subjects. The result was, that though
they did not, like their emigrant countrymen, abandon
their homes, they remained in a state of restless dis-
affection, refused to supply English garrisons with
provisions, except at most exorbitant rates, smuggled
their produce to the French across the line, gave
them aid and intelligence, and sometimes, disguised
as Indians, robbed and murdered English settlers.
By the new-fangled construction of the treaty of
Utrecht which the French boundary commissioners
had devised,^ more than half the Acadian peninsula,
including nearly all the cultivated land and nearly all
the population of French descent, was claimed as
belonging to France, though England had held pos-
session of it more than forty years. Hence, accord-
ing to the political ethics adopted at the time by
1 Supra, p. 128.
246 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.
both nations, it would be lawful for France to reclaim
it by force. England, on her part, it will be remem-
bered, claimed vast tracts beyond the isthmus ; and,
on the same pretext, held that she might rightfully
seize them and capture Beaus^jour, with the other
French garrisons that guarded them.
On the part of France, an invasion of the Acadian
peninsula seemed more than likely. Honor demanded
of her that, having incited the Acadians to disaffec-
tion, and so brought on them the indignation of the
English authorities, she should intervene to save
them from the consequences. Moreover, the loss of
the Acadian peninsula had been gall and wormwood
to her; and in losing it she had lost great material
advantages. Its possession was necessary to connect
Canada with the Island of Cape Breton and the
fortress of Louisbourg. Its fertile fields and agri-
cultural people would furnish subsistence to the
troops and garrisons in the French maritime prov-
inces, now dependent on supplies illicitly brought by
New England traders, and liable to be cut off in time
of war when they were needed most. The harbors
of Acadia, too, would be invaluable as naval stations
from which to curb and threaten the northern Eng-
lish colonies. Hence the intrigues so assiduously
practised to keep the Acadians French at heart, and
ready to throw off British rule at any favorable
moment. British officers believed that should a
French squadron with a sufficient force of troops on
board appear in the Bay of Fundy, the whole popu-
1755.] PERIL OF THE ENGLISH. 247
lation on the Basin of Mines and along the Annapolis
would rise in arms, and that the emigrants beyond
the isthmus, armed and trained by French officers,
would come to their aid. This emigrant population,
famishing in exile, looked back with regret to the
farms they had abandoned; and, prevented as they
were by Le Loutre and his colleagues from making
their peace with the English, they would, if confident
of success, have gladly joined an invading force to
regain their homes by reconquering Acadia for Louis
XV. In other parts of the continent it was the
interest of France to put off hostilities; if Acadia
alone had been in question, it would have been her
interest to precipitate them.
Her chances of success were good. The French
could at any time send troops from Louisbourg or
Quebec to join those maintained upon the isthmus;
and they had on their side of the lines a force of
militia and Indians amounting to about two thou*
sand, while the Acadians within the peninsula had
about an equal number of fighting men who, while
calling themselves neutrals, might be counted on to
join the invaders. The English were in no condition
to withstand such an attack. Their regular troops
were scattered far and wide through the province,
and were nowhere more than equal to the local
requirement ; while of militia, except those of Halifax,
they had few or none whom they dared to trust.
Their fort at Annapolis was weak and dilapidated,
and their other posts were mere stockades. The
248 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [175a.
strongest place in Acadia was the French fort of
Beaus^jour, in which the English saw a continual
menace.
Their apprehensions were well grounded. Du-
quesne, governor of Canada, wrote to Le Loutre,
who virtually shared the control of Beaus^jour with
Vergor, its conunandant: ^^I invite both yourself
and M. Vergor to devise a plausible pretext for
attacking them [the English] vigorously."* Three
weeks after this letter was written, Lawrence, gov-
ernor of Nova Scotia, wrote to Shirley from Halifax:
^ Being well informed that the French have designs
of encroaching still farther upon His Majesty's rights
in this province, and that they propose, the moment
they have repaired the fortifications of Louisbourg,
to attack our fort at Chignecto [Fort Lawrence]^ I
think it high time to make some effort to drive them
from the north side of the Bay of Fundy."' This
letter was brought to Boston by Lieutenant-Colonel
Monckton, who was charged by Lawrence to propose
to Shirley the raising of two thousand men in New
England for the attack of Beausdjour and its depend-
ent forts. Almost at the moment when Lawrence
was writing these proposals to Shirley, Shirley was
writing with the same object to Lawrence, enclosing
a letter from Sir Thomas Robinson, concerning which
he said: ^^I construe the contents to be orders to us
^ Duquesne h Le Loutre, 15 Octobre, 1754; extract in Public Doew
wmnti of Nova Scotia, 239.
* Lawrence to Shirley, 5 November, 1754. Instructions of Lawrencm
to Monckton, 7 November, 1754.
1755.] ROBINSON'S LETTER. 249
to act in concert for taking any advantages to drive
the French of Canada out of Nova Scotia. If that is
jour sense of them, and your honor will be pleased
to let me know whether you want any and what
assistance to enable you to execute the orders, I will
endeavor to send you such assistance from iins
province as you shall want."*
The letter of Sir Thomas Robinson, of which a
duplicate had already been sent to Lawrence, was
written in answer to one of Shirley informing the
minister that the Indians of Nova Scotia, prompted
by the French, were about to make an attack on all
the English settlements east of the Kennebec;
whereupon Robinson wrote: "You will without
doubt have g^ven immediate intelligence thereof to
Colonel Lawrence, and will have concerted the proper-
est measures with him for taking all possible advan-
tage in Nova Scotia itself from the absence of those
Indians, in case Mr. Lawrence shall have force
enough to attack the forts erected by the French in
those parts, without exposing the English settle-
ments; and I am particularly to acquaint you that
if you have not already entered into such a concert
with Colonel Lawrence, it is His Majesty's pleasure
that you should immediately proceed thereupon."'
The Indian raid did not take place ; but not the
less did Shirley and Lawrence find in the minister's
letter their authorization for the attack of Beaus^ jour.
1 Shirlejf to Lawrence, 7 November, 1764.
* Robinson to Shirley, 6 July, 1764.
250 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.
Shirley wrote to Robinson that the expulsion of the
French from the forts on the isthmus was a necessary
measure of self-defence; that they meant to seize the
whole country as far as Mines Basin, and probably as
&r as Annapolis, to supply their Acadian rebels
with land; that of these they had, without reckoning
Indians, foiirteen hundred fighting men on or near
the isthmus, and two hundred and fifty more on the
St. John, with whom, aided by the garrison of
Beaus^jour, they could easily take Fort Lawrence;
that should they succeed in this, the whole Acadian
population would rise in arms, and the King would
lose Nova Scotia. We should anticipate them, con-
cludes Shirley, and strike the first blow.^
He opened his plans to his Assembly in secret
session, and found them of one mind with himself.
Preparation was nearly complete, and the men laised
for the expedition, before the Council at Alexandria
recognized it as a part of a plan of the summer
campaign.
The French fort of Beaus^jour, mounted on its
^ Shirley to Robinson, 8 December, 1754. Ibid., 24 January, 1755.
The Becord Office contains numerous other letters of Shirlej on
the subject. " 1 am obliged to your Honor for communicating to
me the French M^moire, which, with other reasons, puts it out of
doubt that the French are determined to begin an offensire war on
the peninsula as soon as erer they shall think themselves strength-
ened enough to renture upon it, and that they hare thoughts of
attempting it in the ensuing spring. I enclose your Honor extracts
from two letters from Annapolis Royal, which show that the
French inhabitants are in expectation of its being begun in the
spring." — Shirley to Lawrence, 6 January, 1765.
1765.] BEAUS&rOUR. 261
hill between the marshes of Missaguash and Tantemar,
was a regular work, pentagonal in form, with soUd
earthen ramparts, bomb-proofs, and an armament of
twenty-four cannon and one mortar. The command-
ant, Duchambon de Vergor, a captain in the colony
regulars, was a dull man of no education, of stuttering
speech, unpleasing countenance, and doubtful char-
acter. He owed his place to the notorious intendant
Bigot, who, it is said, was in his debt for disreputable
«,rvice in an affair of gallantry, and who had ample
means of enabling his friends to enrich themselves by
defrauding the King. Beaus^jour was one of those
plague-spots of official corruption which dotted the
whole surface of New France. Bigot, sailing for
Europe in the summer of 1754, wrote thus to his
confederate: "Profit by your place, my dear Vergor;
clip and cut — you are free to do what you please—-
so that you can come soon to join me in France and
buy an estate near me.'*^ Vergor did not neglect
his opportunities. Supplies in great quantities were
sent from Quebec for the garrison and the emigrant
Acadians. These last got but a small part of them.
Vergor and his confederates sent the rest back to
Quebec, or else to Louisbourg, and sold them for
their own profit to the King's agents there, who were
also in collusion with him.
Vergor, however, did not reign alone. Le Loutre,
> Mimoirtt iur U Canada, 1749-1760. This letter is also men-
tioned in another contemporary document M4moire sur lee Fraudei
eommiMet dan$ la CoUmU.
252 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [175&
by force of energy, capacity, and passionate vehe*
mence, held him in some awe, and divided his author-
ity. The priest could count on the support of
Duquesne, who had found, says a contemporary,
that ^' he promised more than he could perform, and
that he was a knave," but who nevertheless felt
compelled to rely upon him for keeping the Acadians
on the side of France. There was another person in
the fort worthy of notice. This was Thomas Pichon,
commissary of stores, a man of education and intelli*
gence, bom in France of an English mother. He
was now acting the part of a traitor, carrying on a
secret correspondence with the commandant of Fort
Lawrence, and acquainting him with all that passed
at Beaus^jour. It was partly from this source that
the hostile designs of the French became known to
the authorities of Halifax, and more especially the
proceedings of "Moses," by which name Pichon
always designated Le Loutre, because he pretended
to have led the Acadians from the land of bondage.^
These exiles, who cannot be called self-exiled, in
view of the outrageous means used to force most of
them from their homes, were in a deplorable condi-
tion. They lived in constant dread of Le Loutre,
backed by Vergor and his soldiers. The savage mis-
sionary, bad as he was, had in him an ingredient of
^ Pichon, caUed also TyrreU from the name of hii mother, was
author of Genuine Letters and Memoirs relating to Cape Breton, — a
book of some ralue. His papers are preserred at Halifax, and
some of them are printed in^e Public Documents of Nova Scotia,
1766.] THREATS OF LE LOUTRE. 258
honest fanaticism, both national and religious ; though
hatred of the English held a large share in it. He
would gladly, if he could, have formed the Acadians
into a permanent settlement on the French side of
the line, not out of love for them, but in the interest
of the cause with which he had identified his own
ambition. His efforts had failed. There was not
land enough for their subsistence and that of the
older settlers; and the suffering emigrants pined
more and more for their deserted farms. Thither he
was resolved that they should not return. "If you
go," he told them, "you will have neither priests nor
sacraments, but will die like miserable wretches."^
The assertion was false. Priests and sacraments
had never been denied them. It is true that Daudin,
priest of Pisiquid, had lately been sent to Halifax
for using insolent language to the commandant,
threatening him with an insurrection of the inhab-
itants, and exciting them to sedition; but on his
promise to change conduct, he was sent back to his
parishioners.^ Veigor sustained Le Loutre, and
threatened to put in irons any of the exiles who
talked of going back to the English. Some of them
bethought themselves of an appeal to Duquesne, and
drew up a petition asking leave to return home. Le
Loutre told the signers that if they did not efface
their marks from the paper they should have neithei
1 Pichon to Captain Scott, 14 October, 1764, in Public Documents cf
^ova Scotia, 229.
> Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 223, 224, 226, 227, 288.
264 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.
socramentB in this life, nor heaven in the next. He
nevertheless allowed two of them to go to Quebec as
deputies, writing at the same time to the governor,
that his mind might be duly prepared. Duquesne
replied: ^^I think that the two rascals of deputies
whom you sent me will not soon recover from the
fright I gave them, notwithstanding the emollient I
administered after my reprimand; and since I told
them that they were indebted to you for not being
allowed to rot in a dungeon, they have promised me
to comply with your wishes." ^
An entire heartlessness marked the dealings of the
French authorities with the Acadians. They were
treated as mere tools of policy, to be used, broken,
and flung away. Yet, in using them, the sole condi-
tion of their efficiency was neglected. The French
government, cheated of enormous sums by its own
ravenous agents, grudged the cost of sending a single
regiment to the Acadian border. Thus unsupported,
the Acadians remained in fear and vacillation, aiding
the French but feebly, though a ceaseless annoyance
and menace to the English.
This was the state of affairs at Beaus^jour while
Shirley and Lawrence were planning its destruction.
Lawrence had empowered his agent, Monckton, to
draw without limit on two Boston merchants,
Apthorp and Hancock. Shirley, as commander-in-
chief of the province of Massachusetts, commissioned
John Winslow to raise two thousand volunteers.
I Public Documents of Nova Scotia, 289.
17M.] JOHN wmsLOW. 266
Winslow was sprung from the early govemors of
Plymouth colony; but, though well-bom, he was
ill-educated, which did not prevent him from being
both popular and influential. He had strong military
inclinations, had led a company of his own raising
in the luckless attack on Carthagena, had commanded
the force sent in the preceding summer to occupy
the Kennebec, and on various other occasions had
left his Marshfield farm to serve his country. The
men enlisted readily at his call, and were formed into
a regiment, of which Shirley made himself the
nominal colonel. It had two battalions, of which
Winslow, as lieutenant-colonel, commanded the first,
and George Scott the second, both under the orders
of Monckton. Country villages far and near, from
the western borders of the Connecticut to uttermost
Cape Cod, lent soldiers to the new regiment. The
muster-rolls preserve their names, vocations, birth-
places, and abode. Obadiah, Nehemiah, Jedediah,
Jonathan, Ebenezer, Joshua, and the like Old Testa-
ment names abound upon the list. Some are set
down as "farmers," "yeomen," or "husbandmen;"
others as "shopkeepers," others as "fishermen," and
many as "laborers;" while a great number were
handicraftsmen of various trades, from blacksmiths
to wig-makers. They mustered at Boston early in
April, where clothing, haversacks, and blankets were
served out to them at the charge of the King; and
the crooked streets of the New £ngland capital were
filled with staring young rustics. On the next
256 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.
Saturday the following mandate went forth: ^^The
men will behave very orderly on the Sabbath Day,
and either stay on board their transports, or else go
to church, and not stroll up and down the streets."
The transports, consisting of about forty sloops and
schooners, lay at Long Wharf; and here on Monday
a grand review took place, — to the gratification, no
doubt, of a populace whose amusements were few.
All was ready except the muskets, which were
expected from England, but did not come. Hence
the delay of a month, threatening to ruin the enter-
prise. When Shirley returned from Alexandria he
found, to his disgust, that the transports still lay at
the wharf where he had left them on his departure.^
The muskets arrived at length, and the fleet sailed
on the twenty-second of May. Three small frigates,
the "Success," the "Mermaid," and the "Siren,"
commanded by the ex-privateeisman. Captain Rous,
acted as convoy; and on the twenty-sixth the whole
force safely reached Annapolis. Thence after some
delay they sailed up the Bay of Fundy, and at sunset
on the first of June anchored within five miles of the
hill of Beaus^jour.
At two o'clock on the next morning a party of
Acadians from Chipody roused Vergor with the news.
In great alarm, he sent a messenger to Louisbourg to
beg for help, and ordered all the fighting men of the
neighborhood to repair to the fort. They counted in
1 Shirley to Robinson, 20 June, 1766.
1755.] MONCKTON^S ARRIVAL. 267
all "between twelve and fifteen hundred;^ but they
had no appetite for war. The force of the invaders
daunted them; and the hundred and sixty regulars
who formed the garrison of Beaus^jour were too few
to revive their confidence. Those of them who had
crossed from the English side dreaded what might
ensue should they be caught in arms ; and, to prepare
an excuse beforehand, they begged Vergor to threaten
them with punishment if they disobeyed his order.
He willingly complied, promised to have them killed
if they did not fight, and assured them at the same
time that the English could never take the fort.'
Three hundred of them thereupon joined the garri-
son, and the rest, hiding their families in the woods,
prepared to wage guerilla war against the invaders.
Monckton, with all his force, landed unopposed,
and encamped at night on the fields around Fort
Lawrence, whence he could contemplate Fort Beau-
s^jour at his ease. The regulars of the English gar-
rison joined the New England men; and then, on
the morning of the fourth, they marched to the
attack. Their course lay along the south bcuik of
the Missaguash to where it was crossed by a bridge
called Font-^-Buot. This bridge had been destroyed ;
and on the farther bank there was a large block-
house and a breastwork of timber defended by four
* Mhnoires sur U Canada, 1749-1700. An English document,
State of the English and French Forts in Nova Scotia, says 1,200 to
1,400.
« M€moires sur le Canada, 1749-1700.
TOL. I. — 17
258 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.
hundred regulars, Acadians, and Indians. They
lay silent and unseen till the head of the column
reached the opposite bank; then raised a yell and
opened fire, ca^g some loss. Three field-pieces
were brought up, the defenders were driven out, and
a bridge was laid under a spattering fusillade from
behind bushes, which continued till the English had
crossed the stream. Without further opposition,
they marched along the road to Beaus^jour, and,
turning to the right, encamped among the woody
hills half a leagpie from the fort. That night there
was a grand illumination, for Vergor set fire to the
church and all the houses outside the ramparts.^
The English spent some days in preparing their
camp and reconnoitring the groimd. Then Scott,
with five himdred provincials, seized upon a ridge
within easy range of the works. An officer named
Vannes came out to oppose him with a hundred and
eighty men, boasting that he would do great things ;
but on seeing the enemy, quietly returned, to become
the laughing-stock of the garrison. The fort fired
furiously, but with little effect. In the night of the
thirteenth, Winslow, with a part of his own battalion,
relieved Scott, and planted in the trenches two small
mortars, brought to the camp on carts. On the next
day they opened fire. One of them was disabled by
the French cannon, but Captain Hazen brought up
1 Winslow, Journal and Letter Book, M€moiree sur le Canada^
1749-1760. Letters from officers on the spot in Boston Evening Poet
and Boston News Letter, Journal of Surgeon John Thomas,
1755.] SIEGE OF BEAUS£JOUR. 259
two more, of larger size, on ox-wagons; and, in
spite of heavy rain, the fire was brisk on both sides.
Captain Rous, on board his ship in the harbor,
watched the bombardment with great interest. Hav-
ing occasion to write to Winslow, he closed his letter
in a facetious strain. ^^I often hear of your success
in plunder, particularly a coach. ^ I hope you have
some fine horses for it, at least four, to draw it, that
it may be said a New England colonel [rode in] his
coach and four in Nova Scotia. If you have any
good saddle-horses in your stable, I should be obliged
to you for one to ride round the ship's deck on for
exercise, for I am not likely to have any other."
Within the fort there was little promise of a strong
defence. Le Loutre, it is true, was to be seen in his
shirt-sleeves, with a pipe in his mouth, directing the
Acadians in their work of strengthening the fortifica-
tions.^ They, on their part, thought more of escape
than 6t fighting. Some of them vainly begged to be
allowed to go home ; others went off without leave,
— which was not difficult, as only one side of the
place was attacked. Even among the officers there
were some in whom interest was stronger than honor,
and who would rather rob the King than die for him.
The general discouragement was redoubled when, on
the fourteenth, a letter came from the commandant
^ " 11 Jane. Capt. Adams went with a Company of Raingers,
and Returned at 11 Clock with a Coach and Sum other Plunder.''
•• Journal of John Thomas,
* Journal ofPichon, cited by Beamish Murdoch.
260 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1766.
of Louisbourg to say that he could send no help, as
British ships blocked the way. On the morning of
the sixteenth, a mischance befell, recorded in these
words in the Diary of Surgeon John Thomas : " One
of our large shells fell through what they called their
bomb-proof, where a number of their officers were
sitting, killed six of them dead, and one Ensign Hay,
which the Indians had took prisoner a few days agone
and carried to the fort." The party was at breakfast
when the unwelcome visitor burst in. Just opposite
was a second bomb-proof, where was Vergor himself,
with Le Loutre, another priest, and several officers,
who felt that they might at any time share the same
fate. The effect was immediate. The English,
who had not yet got a single cannon into position,
saw to their surprise a white flag raised on the ram-
part. Some officers of the garrison protested against
surrender; and Le Loutre, who thought that he had
everything to fear at the hands of the victors,
exclaimed that it was better to be buried under the
ruins of the fort than to give it up; but all was in
vain, and the valiant Vannes was sent out to propose
terms of capitulation. They were rejected, and
others offered, to the following effect: the garrison
to march out with the honors of war and to be sent
to Louisbourg at the charge of the King of England,
but not to bear arms in America for the space of six
months; the Acadians to be pardoned the part they
had just borne in the defence, "seeing that they had
been compelled to take arms on pain of death.''
1765.] FLIGHT OF LE LOUTRE. 261
Confasion reigned all day at Beaus^joui. • The
Acadians went home loaded with plunder. The
French officers were so busy in drinking and pUlag.
ing that they could hardly be got away to sign the
capitulation. At the appointed hour, seven in the
evening, Scott marched in with a body of provincials,
raised the British flag on the ramparts, and saluted
it by a general discharge of the French cannon, while
Vergor as a last act of hospitality gave a supper to
the officers.^
Le Loutre was not to be found ; he had escaped in
disguise with his box of papers, and fled to Baye
Verte to join his brother missionary, Manach.
Thence he made his way to Quebec, where the
bishop received him with reproaches. He sooii
embarked for France ; but the English captured him
on the way, and kept him eight years in Elizabeth
Castle, on the Island of Jersey. Here on one occa-
sion a soldier on guard made a dash at the father,
tried to stab him with his bayonet, and was prevented
with great difficulty. He declared that, when he was
with his regiment in Acadia, he had fallen into the
hands of Le Loutre, and narrowly escaped being
scalped alive, the missionary having doomed him to
this fate, and with his own hand drawn a knife round
his head as a beginning of the operation. The man
swore so fiercely that he would have his revenge
^ On the capture of BeauB^jour, M^moires sur U Canada, 1749«
1760 ; Fichon, Cape Breton, 318 ; Journal of Pichon, cited by Mar
doch ; and the English accounts already mentioned
262 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1765.
that the officer in command transferred him to
another post.^
Throughout the siege, the Acadians outside the
fort, aided by Indians, had constantly attacked the
English, but were always beaten off with loss. There
was an affair of this kind on the morning of the sur-
render, during which a noted Micmac chief was shot,
and being brought into the camp, recounted the
losses of his tribe; ^^ after which, and taking a dram
or two, he quickly died," writes Winslow in his
Journal.
Fort Gaspereau, at Baye Vei*te, twelve miles
distant, was summoned by letter to surrender. Vil-
leray, its commandant, at once complied; and
Winslow went with a detachment to take possession.^
Nothing remained but to occupy the French post at
the mouth of the St. John. Captain Rous, relieved
at last from inactivity, was charged with the task;
and on the thirtieth he appeared off the harbor,
manned his boats, and rowed for shore. The French
burned their fort, and withdrew beyond his reach.'
A hundred and fifty Indians, suddenly converted
from enemies to pretended friends, stood on the
strand, firing their guns into the air as a salute, and
declaring themselves brothers of the English. All
Acadia was now in British hands. Fort Beaus^jour
1 Knox, Campaigns in North America, i. 114, note, Knox, who
waa stationed in Nova Scotia, says that Le Loutre left behind him
" a most remarkable character for inhumanity."
* Winslow, Journal, Villeray au 3fimstre, 20 Septembre, 1756.
* Dnicowr au Ministre^ I D€cemhre, 1765.
1756.] VERGOR ACQUITTED. 268
became Fort Cumberland, — the second fort in
America that bore the name of the royal duke.
The defence had been of the feeblest. Two years
later, on pressing demands from Versailles, Vergor
was brought to trial, as was also Villeray. The
governor, Vaudreuil, and the intendant. Bigot, who
had returned to Canada, were in the interest of the
chief defendant. The court-martial was packed;
adverse evidence was shuffled out of sight; and
Vergor, acquitted and restored to his rank, lived to
inflict on New France another and a greater injury.^
Now began the first act of a deplorable drama.
Monckton, with his small body of regulars, had
pitched their tents under the walls of Beaus^jour.
Winslow and Scott, with the New England troops,
lay not far off. There was little intercourse between
the two camps. The British officers bore themselves
towards those of the provincials with a supercilious
coldness common enough on their part throughout
the war. July had passed in what Winslow calls
"an indolent manner," with prayers every day in the
Puritan camp, when, early in August, Monckton sent
for him, and made an ominous declaration. "The
said Monckton was so free as to acquaint me that it
was determined to remove all the French inhabitants
out of the province, and that he should send for all
the adult males from Tantemar, Chipody, Aulac,
Beaus^jour, and Baye Verte to read the Governor's
^ M€moire tur Its Fraudes commiies dans la Colanie, 1779. M^
moires sur U Canada, 1749-1760.
264 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755
orders; and when that was done, was determined to
retain them all prisoners in the fort. And this is
the first conference of a public nature I have had
with the colonel since the reduction of Beausdjour;
and I apprehend that no officer of either corps has
been made more free with."
Monckton sent accordingly to all the neighboring
settlements, commanding the male inhabitants to
meet him at Beaus^jour. Scarcely a third part of
their number obeyed. These arrived on the tenth,
and were told to stay all night under the guns of the
fort. What then befell them will appear from an
entry in the diary of Winslow under date of August
eleventh: "This day was one extraordinary to the
inhabitants of Tantemar, Oueskak, Aulac, Baye
Verte, Beaus^jour, and places adjacent; the male
inhabitants, or the principal of them, being collected
together in Fort Cumberland to hear the sentence,
which determined their property, from the Governoi
and Council of Halifax; which was that they were
declared rebels, their lands, goods, and chattels for-
feited to the Crown, and their bodies to be imprisoned.
Upon which the gates of the fort were shut, and they
all confined, to the amount of four hundred men and
upwards." Parties were sent to gather more, but
caught very few, the rest escaping to the woods.
Some of the prisoners were no doubt among those
who had joined the garrison at Beaus^jour, and had
been pardoned for doing so by the terms of the
capitulation. It was held, however, that, though
1755.] ITS MOTIVES. 266
foTgiven this special offence, they were not exempted
from the doom that had gone forth against the great
body of their countrymen. We must look closely at
the motives and execution of this stem sentence.
At any time up to the spring of 1755 the emigrant
Acadians were free to return to their homes on tak-
ing the ordinary oath of aUegiance required of British
subjects. The English authorities of Halifax used
every means to persuade them to do so; yet the
greater part refused. This was due not only to Le
Loutre and his brother priests, backed by the mili-*
tary power, but also to the bishop of Quebec, who
enjoined the Acadians to demand of the English cer-
tain concessions, the chief of which were that the
priests should exercise their functions without being
required to ask leave of the governor, and that the
inhabitants should not be called upon for military
service of any kind. The bishop added that the
provisions of the treaty of Utrecht were insufficient,
and that others ought to be exacted.^ The oral
declaration of the English authorities, that for the
present the Acadians should not be required to bear
arms, was not thought enough. They, or rather
their prompters, demanded a written pledge.
The refusal to take the oath without reservation
was not confined to the emigrants. Those who
remained in the peninsula equally refused it, though
most of them were bom and had always lived under
1 VSveque de QuSbec a Le Loutre, Novembre, 1754, in Public Doeu
Mfi/« of Nova Scotia, 2i0.
266 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.
the British flag. Far from pledging themselyes to
complete allegiance, they showed continual signs of
hostility. In May three pretended French deserters
were detected among them inciting them to take
arms against the English.^
On the capture of Beaus^jour the British authori-
ties found themselyes in a position of great difficulty.
The New England troops were enlisted for the year
only, and could not be kept in Acadia. It was likely
that the French would make a strong effort to recover
the province, sure as they were of support from the
great body of its people. The presence of this dis-
affected population was for the French commanders a
continual inducement to invasion; and Lawrence
was not strong enough to cope at once with attack
from without and insurrection from within.
Shirley had held for some time that there was no
safety for Acadia but in ridding it of the Acadians.
He had lately proposed that the lands of the district
of Chignecto, abandoned by their emigrant owners,
should be given to English settlers, who would act
as a check and a counterpoise to the neighboring
French population. This advice had not been acted
upon. Nevertheless Shirley and his brother governor
of Nova Scotia were kindred spirits, and incliired to
similar measures. Colonel Charles Lawrence had
not the good-nature and conciliatory temper which
marked his predecessors, Comwallis and Hopson.
His energetic will was not apt to relent under the
* VSv€que de Quebec h Le Loutre, Novembre, 1754, in Public Doo
uments of Nova Scotia, 242.
1766.] VIEWS OF ENGLISH AUTHORITIES. 267
softer sentimentB, and the behavior of the Acadiana
was fast exhausting his patience. More than a year
before, the Lords of Trade had instructed him that
they had no right to their lands if they persisted in
refusing the oath.^ Lawrence replied, enlarging on
their obstinacy, treachery, and ^^ingratitude for the
favor, indulgence, and protection they have at all
times so undeservedly received from His Majesty's
Government;" declaring at the same time that,
^whUe they remain without taking the oaths, and
have incendiary French priests among them, there
are no hopes of their amendment;" and that ^it
would be much better, if they refuse the oaths, that
they were away."^ ''We were in hopes," again
wrote the Lords of Trade, *'that the lenity which
had been shown to those people by indulging them
in the free exercise of their religion and the quiet
possession of their lands, would by degrees have
gained their friendship and assistance, and weaned
their affections from the French; but we are sorry to
find that this lenity has had so little effect, and that
they still hold the same conduct, furnishing them
with labor, provisions, and intelligence, and conceal-
ing their designs from us." In fact, the Acadians,
while calling themselves neutrals, were an enemy
encamped in the heart of the province. These are
the reasons which explain and palliate a measure too
harsh and indiscriminate to be wholly justified.
Abb^ Raynal, who never saw the Acadians, has
^ Lords of Trade to Lawrence, 4 March, 1754.
< Lawrence to Lords of Trade, 1 Atigutt, 1764.
268 REMOVAL OF THE ACABIANS. ' [175^
made an ideal picture of them,^ since copied and
improved in prose and verse, till Acadia has become
Arcadia. The plain realities of their condition and
fate are touching enough to need no exaggeration.
They were a simple and very ignorant peasantry,
industrious and frugal till evil days came to discour*
age them ; living aloof from the world, with little of
that spirit of adventure which an easy access to the
vast fur-bearing interior had developed in their
Canadian kindred; having few wants, and those of
the rudest; fishing a little and hunting in the winter,^
but chiefly employed in cultivating the meadows
along the river Annapolis, or rich marshes reclaimed
by dikes from the tides of the Bay of Fundy. The
British government left them entirely free of taxa-
tion. They made clothing of flax and wool of their
own raising, hats of similar materials, and shoes or
moccasons of moose and seal skin. They bred cattle,
sheep, hogs, and horses in abundance ; and the valley
of the Annapolis, tlien as now, was known for the
profusion and excellence of its apples. For drink,
they made cider or brewed spruce-beer. French
officials describe their dwellings as wretched wooden
boxes, without ornaments or conveniences, and
scarcely supplied with the most necessary furniture.'
Two or more families often occupied the same house;
and their way of life, though simple and virtuous,
1 HitUtirt philosophigue et politique, yi. 242 (ed. 1772).
* Bwytkamoii et Hocguart au ComU de Maurepas, 12 Septemhr^,
1746.
1755.] THEIR CHARACTER. 269
was by no means remarkable for cleanliness. Such
as it was, contentment reigned among tbem, undis-
turbed by what modem America calls progress.
Marriages were early, and population grew apace.
This humble society had its disturbing elements ; for
the Acadians, like the Canadians, were a litigious *-
race, and neighbors often quarrelled about their
boundaries. Nor were they without a bountiful
share of jealousy, gossip, and backbiting, to relieve
the monotony of their lives ; and every village had its
turbulent spirits, sometimes by fits, though rarely
long, contumacious even toward the cur^, the guide,
counsellor, and ruler of his flock. Enfeebled by
hereditary mental subjection, and too long kept in
leading-strings to walk alone, they needed him, not
for the next world only, but for this; and their 8ul>-
mission, compounded of love and fear, was commonly
without bounds. He was their true government; to
him they gave a frank and full allegiance, and dared
not disobey him if they would. Of knowledge he
gave them nothing ; but he taught them to be true to
their wives and constant at confession and mass,
to stand fast for the Church and King Louis, and to
resist heresy and King George ; for, in one degree or
another, the Acadian priest was always the agent
of a double-headed foreign power, — the bishop of
Quebec allied with the governor of Canada.^
When Monckton and the Massachusetts men laid
1 Franquet, Journal ^ 1751, says of the Acadians: "Us aiment
Targent, n'ont dans toute leur conduite que leur inUrdt ponr objet,
270 BEMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. J.175&
siege to Beaus^jour, Governor Lawrence thought the
moment favorable for exacting an unqualified oath of
allegiance from the Acadians. The presence of a
superior and victorious force would help, he thought,
to bring them to reason; and there were some indica-
tions that this would be the result. A number of
Acadian families, who at the promptings of Le Loutre
had emigrated to Cape Breton, had lately returned
to Halifax, promising to be true subjects of King
George if they could be allowed to repossess their
lands. They cheerfuUy took the oath; on which
they were reinstated in their old homes, and supplied
with food for the winter.^ Their example unfortu-
nately foimd few imitators.
Early in June the principal inhabitants of Grand
Pr^ and other settlements about the Basin of Mines
brought a memorial, signed with their crosses, to
Captain Murray, the military commandant in their
district, and desired him to send it to Governor
Lawrence, to whom it was addressed. Murray
reported that when they brought it to him they
behaved with the greatest insolence, though just
before they had been unusually submissive. He
thought that this change of demeanor was caused by
a report which had lately got among them of a French
fleet in the Bay of Fimdy; for it had been observed
•ont, indiflf^remment des deux sexes, d'une inconsid^ration dam
leurs discours qui denote de la m^chancet^/' Another obsenrer,
Dier^Tille, gives a more favorable picture.
^ PfMie Documents of Nova Scotia, 228.
17Sfi.j THEIB MEMORIAL. 271
that any rumor of an approaching French force
always had a similar effect. The deputies who
brought the memorial were sent with it to Halifax,
where they laid it before the governor and Council.
It declared that the signers had kept the qualified
oath they had taken, ^^in spite of the solicitations
and dreadful threats of another power," and that they
would continue to prove ^^an unshaken fidelity to
His Majesty, provided that His Majesty shall allow
us the same liberty that he has [hitfurto] granted
us." Their memorial then demanded, in terms
highly offensive to the Council, that the guns,
pistols, and other weapons, which they had lately
been required to give up, should be returned to
them. They were told in reply that they had
been protected for many years in the enjoyment of
their lands, though they had not complied with
the terms on which the lands were granted; ^^that
they had always been treated by the Government
with the greatest lenity and tenderness, had en-
joyed more privileges than other English subjects,
and had been indulged in the free exercise of their
religion;" all which they acknowledged to be true.
The governor then told them that their conduct had
been undutif ul and ungrateful ; ^^ that they had dis*
covered a constant disposition to assist His Majesty's
enemies and to distress his subjects; that they had
not only furnished the enemy with provisions and
ammunition, but had refused to supply the [English"]
inhabitants or Government, and when they did supply
272 REMOVAL OP THE ACADIANS. (1766.
ihem, had exacted three tunes the price for which
they were sold at other markets." The hope was
then expressed that they would no longer obstruct
the settlement of the province by aiding the Indians
to molest and kill English settlers; and they were
rebuked for saying in their memorial that they would
be faithful to the King only on certain conditions.
The governor added that they had some secret reason
for demanding their weapons, and flattered them*
selves that French troops were at hand to support
their insolence. In conclusion, they were told that
now was a good opportunity to prove their sincerity
by taking the oath of allegiance, in the usual form,
before the Council. They replied that they had not
made up their minds on that point, and could do
nothing till they had consulted their constituents.
Being reminded that the oath was personal to them*
selves, and that six years had already been given
them to think about it, they asked leave to retire and
confer together. This was g^nted, and at the end
of an hour they came back with the same answer as
before; whereupon they were allowed till ten o^clock
on the next morning for a final decision.^
At the appointed time the Council again met, and
the deputies were brought in. They persisted stub-
bornly in the same refusal. **They were then in-
formed," says the record, "that the Council could no
longer look on them as subjects to His Britannic
^ Minutes of Council al Hali/ax, 8 •Tti/y, 1765, in Public Documents
^Nova Scotia, 247-235.
J755l] they refuse THE OATH. 278
Majesty, but as subjects to the King of Fiance, and
as such they must hereafter be treated; and they
were ordered to withdraw." A discussion followed
in the Council. It was determined that the Acadians
should be ordered to send new deputies to Halifax,
who should answer for them, once for all, whether
they would accept the oath or not; that such as
refused it should not thereafter be permitted to take
it; and ^^that effectual measures ought to be taken
to remove all such recusants out of the province."
The deputies, being then called in and told this
decision, became alarmed, . and offered to swear
allegiance in the terms required. The answer was
that it was too late; that as they had refused the
Dath under persuasion, they could not be trusted
when they took it under compulsion. It remained to
see whether the people at large would profit by their
example.
^ I am determined, " wrote Lawrence to the Lords
of Trade, ^^ to bring the inhabitants to a compliance,
or rid the province of such perfidious subjects."*
First, in answer to the summons of the Council, the
deputies from Annapolis appeared, declaring that
they had always been faithful to the British Crown,
but flatly refusing the oath. They were told that,
far from having been faithful subjects, they had
alwajTS secretly aided the Indians, and that many of
them had been in arms against the English; that the
French were threatening the province; and that its
1 Laurence to Lords of Trade, 18 Juljf, 1756.
VOL. I. — 18
274 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [176&
affairs had reached a crisis when its inhabitants must
either pledge themselves without equivocation to be
true to the British Crown, or else must leave the
country. They all declared that they would lose
their lands rather than take the oath. The Council
urged them to consider the matter seriously, warning
them that, if they now persisted in refusal, no farther
choice would be allowed them; and they were given
till ten o'clock on the following Monday to make
their final answer.
When that day came, another body of deputies had
arrived from Grand Pr^ and the other settlements of
the Basin of Mines; and being called before the
Council, both they and the former deputation abso-
lutely refused to take the oath of allegiance. These
two bodies represented nine-tenths of the Acadian
population within the peninsula. "Nothing," pur-
sues the record of the Council, " now remained to be
considered but what measures should be taken to
send the inhabitants away, and where they should be
sent to." If they were sent to Canada, Cape Breton,
or the neighboring islands, they would strengthen
the enemy, and still threaten the province. It was
therefore resolved to distribute them among the
various English colonies, and to hire vessels for the
purpose with all despatch.^
^ MinuttB of Council, 4 Julif-2S July, in Public Documenti of
Nova Scotia, 265-267. Copies of these and other parts of the record
were sent at the time to England, and are now in the Public Record
Office along with the letters of Lawrence.
1755.] MOTIVES OF THEIR CONDUCT. 276
The oath, the refusal of which had brought such
consequences, was a simple pledge of fidelity and
allegiance to King George II. and his successors.
Many of the Acadians had already taken an oath of
fidelity, though with the omission of the word ** alle-
giance," and, as they insisted, with a saving clause
exempting them from bearing arms. The effect of
this was that they did not regard themselves as
British subjects, and claimed, falsely as regards most
of them, the character of neutrals. It was to put an
end to this anomalous state of things that the oath
without reserve had been demanded of them. Their
rejection of it, reiterated in full view of the conse-
quences, is to be ascribed partly to a fixed belief that
the English would not execute their threats, partly
to ties of race and kin, but mainly to superstition.
They feared to take part with heretics against the
King of France, whose cause, as already stated, they
had been taught to regard as one with the cause of
God; they were constrained by the dread of perdi-
tion. ^^If the Acadians are miserable, remember
that the priests are the cause of it," writes the
French officer Boish^bert to the missionary Manach.^
1 On the oath and its history, compare a long note bj Mr. Akin
in Public Document$ of Nova Scotia, 20^267. Winslow in his Jour-
nal gives an abstract of a memorial sent him bj the Acadians, in
which thej say that they had refused the oath, and so forfeited
their lands, from motives of religion. I have shown in a former
chapter that the priests had been the chief instruments in prevent-
ing them from accepting the English government. Add the
f oUowing : —
" Les malheurs des Accadiens sont beaucoup moins leur ouvrag^
276 BEMOVAL OF THE ACADIAXS. [1755.
The Council having come to a decision, Lawrence
acquainted Monckton with the result, and ordered
him to seize all the adult males in the neighborhood
of Beaus^jour ; and this, as we have seen, he promptly
did. It remains to observe how the rest of the
sentence was carried into effect.
Instructions were sent to Winslow to secure the
inhabitants on or near the Basin of Mines and place
t^em on board transports, which, he was told, would
soon arrive from Boston. His orders were stringent:
^If you find that fair means will not do with them,
you must proceed by the most vigorous measures
possible, not only in compelling them to embark, but
in depriving those who shall escape of all means of
shelter or support, by burning their houses and by
destroying everything that may afford them the
means of subsistence in the coimtry." Similar orders
were given to Major Handfield, the regular officer in
command at Annapolis.
que le fruit des soUicitations et des d-marches dec missionnairet.*
— Vaudretul au Ministre, 6 Mai, 1700.
** Si nous avons la gaerre, et si les Accadiens sont mis^rables,
soareDes-Toas que ce sont les pr^tres qui en sont la cause." —
Boiihihert a Manach, 21 F^vrter, 1700. Both these writers had en-
couraged the priests in their intrigues so long as these were likelj
to profit the French government, and only blamed them after thej
failed to accomplish what was expected of them.
" Nous avons six missionnaires dont I'occupation perpetuelle est
ds porter les esprits au fanatisme et h la vengeance. . . . Je ne puis
supporter dans nos pr^tres ces odieuses declamations qu'ils font
tous les jours aux sauvages: 'Les Anglois sont les ennemis de
Dieu, les compagnons du Diable.' " — Pichon, Lettreg et MSmoireB pom
§ermr h rHittoire du Cap-Breton, 160, 161. (La Haye, 1760.)
1765.] MISSION OF WINSLOW. 277
On the fourteenth of August Winslow set out from
his camp at Fort Beaus^jour, or Cumberland, on his
unenviable errand. He had with him but two hun-
dred and ninety-seven men. His mood of mind was
not serene. He was chafed because the regulars had
charged his men with stealing sheep; and he was
doubly vexed by an untoward incident that happened
on the morning of his departure. He had sent for-
ward his detachment under Adams, the senior cap-
tain, and they were marching by the fort with drums
beating and colors flying, when Monckton sent out
his aide-de-camp with a curt demand that the colors
should be given up, on the ground that they ought
to remain with the regiment. Whatever the sound-
ness of the reason, there was no courtesy in the
manner of enforcing it. ^ This transaction raised my
temper some," writes Winslow in his Diary; and he
proceeds to record his opinion that ^4t is the most
imgenteel, ill-natured thing that ever I saw.*' He
sent Monckton a quaintly indignant note, in which
he observed that the affair ^4ooks odd, and will
appear so in future history;" but his commander,
reckless of the judgments of posterity, gave him little
satisfaction.
Thus ruffled in spirit, he embarked with his men
and sailed down Chignecto Channel to the Bay of
Fundy. Here, while they waited the turn of the
tide to enter the Basin of Mines, the shores of Cum-
berland lay before them dim in the hot and hazy air,
and the promontory of Cape Split, like some mis-
278 REMOVAL OP THE ACADIANS. [176&
Bhapen monster of primeval chaos, stretched its por-
tentous length along the glimmering sea, with head
of yawning rock, and ridgy back bristled with forests.
Borne on the rushing flood, they soon drifted through
the inlet, glided under the rival promontory of Cape
Blomedon, passed the red sandstone cliffs of Lyon's
Cove, and descried the mouths of the rivers Canard
and Des Habitants, where fertile marshes, diked
against the tide, sustained a numerous and thriving
population. Before them spread the boundless
meadows of Grand Pr^, waving with harvests or
alive with grazing cattle; the green slopes behind
were dotted with the simple dwellings of the Acadian
farmeis, and the spire of the village church rose
against a background of woody hills. It was a
peaceful, rural scene, soon to become one of the most
wretched spots on earth. Winslow did not land for
the present, but held his course to the estuary of the
river Pisiquid, since called the Avon. Here, where
the town of Windsor now stands, there was a stock-
ade called Fort Edward, where a garrison of regulars
under Captain Alexander Murray kept watch over
the surrounding settlements. The New England
men pitched their tents on shore, while the sloops
that had brought them slept on the soft bed of tawny
mud left by the fallen tide.
Winslow found a warm reception, for Murray and
his officers had been reduced too long to their own
society not to welcome the coming of strangers. The
two commanders conferred together. Both had been
1755.] WmSLOW AT GRAND PRfi. 279
ordered by Lawrence to "clear the whole country of
such bad subjects ; " and the methods of doing so had
been outlined for their guidance. Having come to
some understanding with his brother officer concern-
ing the duties imposed on both, and begun an
acquaintance which soon grew cordial on both sides,
Winslow embarked again and retraced his course to
Grand Pr^, the station which the governor had
assigned him. " Am pleased, " he wrote to Lawrence,
** with the place proposed by your Excellency for our
reception [the village church']. I have sent for the
elders to remove all sacred things, to prevent their
being defiled by heretics." The church was used as
a storehouse and place of arms; the men pitched their
tents between it and the graveyard; while Winslow
took up his quarters in the house of the priest, where
he could look from his window on a tranquil scene.
Beyond the vast tract of grassland to which Grand
Pr^ owed its name, spread the blue glistening breast
of the Basin of Mines ; beyond this again, the distant
moimtains of Cobequid basked in the summer sun;
and nearer, on the left. Cape Blomedon reared its
bluff head of rock and forest above the sleeping
waves.
As the men of the settlement greatly outnumbered
his own, Winslow set his followers to surrounding
the camp with a stockade. Card-pla}ning was for-
bidden, because it encouraged idleness, and pitching
quoits in camp, because it spoiled the grass. Pres-
ently there came a letter from Lawrence expressing a
t-'
280 REMOVAL OP THE ACADIANS. [1765.
fear that the fortifying of the camp might alarm the
inhabitants. To which Winslow replied that the
making of the stockade had not alarmed them in the
least, since they took it as a proof that the detach-
ment was to spend the winter with them; and he
added, that as the harvest was not yet got in, he and
Murray had agreed not to publish the governor's
commands till the next Friday. He concludes:
^^ Although it is a dissigreeable part of duty we are put
upon, I am sensible it is a necessary one, and shall
endeavor strictly to obey your Excellency's orders."
On the thirtieth, Murray, whose post was not many
miles distant, made him a visit. They sigreed that
Winslow should summon all the male inhabitants
about Grand Pr^ to meet him at the church and hear
the King's orders, and that Murray should do the
same for those around Fort Edward. Winslow then
called in his three captains, — Adams, Hobbs, and
Osgood, — made them swear secrecy, and laid before
them his instructions and plans; which latter they
approved. Murray then returned to his post, and on
the next day sent Winslow a note containing the
following: "I think the sooner we strike the stroke
the better, therefore will be glad to see you here as
soon as conveniently you can. I shall have the
orders for assembling ready written for your approba-
tion, only the day blank, and am hopeful everything
will succeed according to our wishes. The gentle-
men join me in our best compliments to you and the
Doctor."
1755.] THE SUMMONS. 281
On the next day, Sunday, Winslow and the Doctor, ^
whose name was Whitwortb, made the tour of the
neighborhood, with an escort of fifty men, and found
a great quantity of wheat stiU on the fields. On
Tuesday Winslow "set out in a whale-boat with Dr.
Whitwortb and Adjutant Kennedy, to consult with
Captain Murray in this critical conjuncture." They
agreed that three in the afternoon of Friday should
be the time of assembling; then between them they
drew up a summons to the inhabitants, and got one
Beauchamp, a merchant, to "put it into French/'
It ran as follows: —
By John Winslow, Esquire, Lieutenant-Colonel and
Commander of His Majesty's troops at Grand Pr6, Mines,
Kiver Canard, and places adjacent.
To the inhabitants of the districts above named, as well
ancients as young men and lads.
Whereas His Excellency the Grovemor has instructed
ns of his last resolution respecting the matters proposed
lately to the inhabitants, and has ordered us to communi-
cate the same to the inhabitants in general in person, His
Excellency being desirous that each of them should be
fully satisfied of His Majesty's intentions, which he has
also ordered ns to communicate to you, such as they have
been given him.
We therefore order and strictly enjoin by these presents
to all the inhabitants, as well of the above-named districts
as of all the other districts, both old men and young men,
as well as all the lads of ten yeavs of age, to attend at the
church in Grand Pr^ on Friday, the fifth instant, at three
of the clock in the afternoon, that we may impart what we
ore ordered to communicate to them; declaring that no
282 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.
excuse will be admitted on any pretence whatsoeyer, on
pain of forfeiting goods and chattels in default.
Given at Grand Pr^, the second of September, in the
twenty-ninth year of His Majesty's reign, a.d. 1755.
A similar summons was drawn up in the name of
Murray for the inhabitants of the district of Fort
Edward.
Captain Adams made a reconnoissance of the rivers
Canard and Des Habitants, and reported ^^a fine
country and full of inhabitants, a beautiful church,
and abundance of the goods of the world." Another
reconnoissance by Captains Hobbs and Osgood among
the settlements behind Grand Prd brought reports
equally favorable. On the fourth, another letter
came from Murray : " All the people quiet, and very
busy at their harvest ; if this day keeps fair, all will
be in here in their bams. I hope to-morrow will
crown all our wishes." The Acadians, like the bees,
were to gather a harvest for others to enjoy. The
summons was sent out that afternoon. Powder and
ball were served to the men, and all were ordered to
keep within the lines.
On the next day the inhabitants appeared at the
hour appointed, to the number of four hundred and
eighteen men. Winslow ordered a table to be set in
the middle of the church, and placed on it his
instructions and the address he had prepared. Here
he took his stand in his laced uniform, with one or
two subalterns from the regulars at Fort Edward,
and such of the Massachusetts officers as were not on
1755.] SCENE IN THE CHUBCH. 288
guard duty; strong, sinewy figures, bearing, no
doubt, more or less distinctly, the peculiar stamp
with which toil, trade, and Puritanism had imprinted
the features of New England. Their commander v
was not of the prevailing type. He was fifty-three
years of age, with double chin, smooth forehead,
arched eyebrows, close powdered wig, and round,
rubicund face, from which the weight of an odious
duty had probably banished the smirk of self-satis-
faction that dwelt there at other times. ^ Neverthe-
less, he had manly and estimable qualities. The
congregation of peasants, clad in rough homespun,
turned their sunburned faces upon him, anxious and
intent; and Winslow "delivered them by interpret-
ers the King's orders in the following words,'* which,
retouched in orthography and syntax, ran thus: —
Gentlemen, — I have received from His Excellency,
Governor Lawrence, the King's instructions, which I have
in my hand. By his orders you are called together to
hear His Majesty's final resolution concerning the French
inhabitants of this his province of Nova Scotia, who for
almost half a century have had more indulgence granted
them than any of his subjects in any part of his dominions.
What use you have made of it you yourselves best know.
The duty I am now upon, though necessary, is very disa-
greeable to my natural make and temper, as I know it must
be grievous to you, who are of the same species. But it
is not my business to animadvert on the orders I have
received, but to obey them; and therefore without hesita*
I See his portrait, at the roomg of the MaMachusetts Historical
Societj.
284 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [175&
tion I shall deliver to you His Majesty's instructions and
commands, which are that your lands and tenements and
cattle and live-stock of all kinds are forfeited to the Crown,
with all your other effects, except money and household
goods, and that you yourselves are to be removed from
this his province.
The peremptory orders of His Majesty are that all the
French inhabitants of these districts be removed; and
through His Majesty's goodness I am directed to allow
you the liberty of carrying with you your money and as
many of your household goods as you can take without
overloading the vessels you go in. I shall do everything
in my power that all these goods be secured to you, and
that you be not molested in carrying them away, and also
that whole families shall go in the same vessel ; so that
this removal, which I am sensible must give you a great
deal of trouble, may be made as easy as His Majesty's
service will admit; and I hope that in whatever part of
the world your lot may fall, you may be faithful subjects,
and a peaceable and happy people.
I must also inform you that it is His Majesty's pleasure
that you remain in security under the inspection and direc-
tion of the troops that I have the honor to command.
He then declared them prisoners of the King.
"They were greatly struck," he says, "at this deter-
mination, though I believe they did not imagine that
they were actually to be removed." After delivering
the address, he returned to his quarters at the priest's
house, whither he was followed by some of the elder
prisoners, who begged leave to tell their families
what had happened, "since they were fearful that
the surprise of their detention would quite overcome
J766.] AN ENGLISH REVERSE. 285
them.** Winslow consulted with his officers, and it
was arranged that the Acadians should choose twenty
of their number each day to revisit their homes, the
rest being held answerable for their return.
A letter, dated some days before, now came from
Major Handfield at Annapolis, saying that he had
tried to secure the men of that neighborhood, but
that many of them had escaped to the woods.
Murray's report from Fort Edward came soon after,
and was more favorable: "I have succeeded finely,
and have got a hundred and eighty-three men into
my possession." To which Winslow replies: "I
have the favor of yours of this day, and rejoice at
your success, and also for the smiles that have attended
the party here. '* But he adds mournfully: "Things
are now very heavy on my heart and hands." The
prisoners were lodged in the church, and notice was
sent to their families to bring them food. " Thus, *'
BSijs the Diary of the commander, "ended the memo-
rable fifth of September, a day of great fatigue and
trouble.*'
There was one quarter where fortune did not
always smile. Major Jedediah Preble, of Winslow's
battalion, wrote to him that Major Frye had just
returned from Chipody, whither he had gone with a
party of men to destroy the settlements and bring off
the women and ohildfon* After burning two hun-
dred and fifty-three buildings he had re-embarked,
leaving fifty men on shore at a place called Peticodiac
to give a finishing stroke to the work by burning the
286 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1765.
"Mass House,'* or church. While thus engaged,
they were set upon by three hundred Indians and
Acadians, led by the partisan officer Boish^bert.
More than half their number were killed, wounded,
or taken. The rest ensconced themselves behind the
neighboring dikes, and Frye, hastily landing with
the rest of his men, engaged the assailants for three
hours, but was forced at last to re-embark.^ Captain
Speakman, who took part in the affair, also sent
Winslow an account of it, and added: "The people
here are much concerned for fear your party should
meet with the same fate (being in the heart of a
numerous devilish crew), which I pray God avert.*'
Winslow had indeed some cause for anxiety. He
had captured more Acadians since the fifth; and had
now in charge nearly five hundred able-bodied men,
with scarcely three hundred to guard them. As they
were allowed daily exercise in the open air, they
might by a sudden rush get possession of arms and
make serious trouble. On the Wednesday after the
scene in the church some unusual movements were
observed among them, and Winslow and his officers
became convinced that they could not safely be kept
in one body. Five vessels, lately arrived from
Boston, were lying within the mouth of the neigh-
boring river. It was resolved to place fifty of the
prisoners on board each of these, and keep them
1 AIbo Boiihibert a Drucour^ 10 Octobre, 1756, an exaggerated
account. Vaudreuil au Minittre^ 18 Octobre^ 1755, sets Boish^ert'?
force at one hundred and twenty-five men.
1766.] A MEASURE OF PRECAUTION. 287
anchored in the Basin. The soldiers were all ordered
under arms, and posted on an open space beside the
church and behind the priest's house. The prisoners
were then drawn up before them, ranked six deep, —
the young unmarried men, as the most dangerous,
being told off and placed on the left, to the number
of a hundred and forty-one. Captain Adams, with
eighty men, was then ordered to guard them to the
vessels. Though the object of the movement had
been explained to them, they were possessed with the
idea that they were to be torn from their families and
sent away at once ; and they all, in great excitement,
refused to go. Winslow told them that there must
be no parley or delay ; and as they still refused, a
squad of soldiers advanced towards them with fixed
bayonets ; while he himself, laying hold of the fore-
most young man, commanded him to move forward.
" He obeyed ; and the rest followed, though slowly,
and went off praying, singing, and crying, being met
by the women and children all the way (which is a
mile and a half) with great lamentation, upon their
knees, praying." When the escort returned, about a
hundred of the married men were ordered to follow
the first party; and, "the ice being broken,^" they
readily complied. The vessels were anchored at a
little distance from shore, and six soldiers were placed
on board each of them as a guard. The prisoners
were offered the King's rations, but preferred to be
supplied by their famiUes, who, it was arranged,
should go in boats to visit them every day; "and
288 EEMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1766.
thus," says Winslow, "ended this troublesome job."
He was not given to effusions of feeling, but he
wrote to Major Handfield: "This affair is more
grievous to me than any service I was ever employed
in."i
Murray sent him a note of congratulation: "I am
extremely pleased that things are so clever at Grand
Pr^, and that the poor devils are so resigned. Here
they are more patient than I could have expected for
people in their circumstances; and what surprises
me still more is the indifference of the women, who
really are, or seem, quite unconcerned. I long much
to see the poor wretches embarked and our affair a
little settled ; and then I will do myself the pleasure
of meeting you and drinking their good voyage."
This agreeable consummation was still distant.
There was a long and painful delay. The provisions
for the vessels which were to carry the prisoners did
•
not come ; nor did the vessels themselves, excepting
the five already at Grand Pri, In vain Winslow
wrote urgent letters to George Saul, the commissary,
to bring the supplies at once. Murray, at Fort
Edward, though with less feeling than his brother
officer, was quite as impatient of the burden of
suffering humanity on his hands. "I am amazed
what can keep the transports and Saul. Surely our
^ Haliburton, who knew Winslow's Journal only by imperfect
extracts, erroneouBly states that the men put on board the vessels
were sent away immediately. They remained at Grand Pr^ several
weeks, and wem then sent off at int^vals with their families.
1765.] EMBARKATION. 289
friend at Chignecto is willing to g^ve us as much of
our neighbors' company as he well can." ^ Saul came
at last ^th a shipSof provisions; but the lagging
transports did not appear. Winslow grew heartsick
at the daily sight of miseries which he himself had
occasioned, and wrote to a friend at Halifax: ^^I
know they deserve all and more than they feel; yet
it hurts me to near their weeping and wailing and
gobbing of .^fl.. I.„mhop^o„r.«J^
soon put on another face, and we get transports, and
I rid of the worst piece of service that ever I was in.''
After weeks of delay, seven transports came from
Annapolis; and Winslow sent three of them to
Murray, who joyfully responded : " Thank God, the
transports are come at last. So soon as I have
shipped off my rascals, I will come down and settle
matters with you, and enjoy ourselves a little."
Winslow prepared for the embarkation. The
Acadian prisoners and their famiUes'were divided
into groups answering to their several villages, in
possible, go in the same vessel. It was also provided
that the members of each family should remain
together; and notice was given them to hold them-
selves in readiness. "But even now," he writes, "I
could not persuade the people I was in earnest."
Their doubts were soon ended. The first embarka-
tion took place on the eighth of October, under which
date the Diary contains this entry : " Began to embark
1 Murray to Window, 26 September, 176&
TOL. I. — 19
290 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1756.
the inhafaitants, who went off very solentarily [sie\
and unwillingly, the women in great distress, carry-
ing off their children in their arms; others carrying
their decrepit parents in their carts, with all their
goods; moving in grcat confusion, and appeared a
scene of woe and distress."^
Though a large number were embarked on this
occasion, still more remained; and as the transports
slowly arrived, the dismal scene was repeated at
intervals, with more order than at first, as the Aca-
dians had learned to accept their fate as a certainty.
So far as Winslow was concerned, their treatment
seems to have been as humane as was possible under
the circumstances; but they complained of the men,
who disliked and despised them. One soldier received
thirty lashes for stealing fowls from them; and an
order was issued forbidding soldiers or sailors, on
pain of summary punishment, to leave their quarters
without permission, *^ that an end may be put to
distressing this distressed people." Two of the pris-
oners, however, while tiying to escape, were shot by
a reconnoitring party.
At the beginning of November Winslow reported
that he had sent off fifteen hundred and ten persons,
in nine vessels, and that more than six hundred still
remained in lus district.^ The last of these were not
embarked till late in December. Murray finished
1 In ipite of Winslow's care, some cases of separation of f ami
Ues occurred ; but they were not numerous.
* Wimhw to Monckton, 8 November, 1766.
1756.1 CONJUGAL DEVOTION. 291
his part of the work at the end of October, having
sent from the district of Fort Edward eleven hundred
persons in four frightfully crowded transports.^ At
the close of that month sixteen hundred and sixty-
four had been sent from the district of Annapolis,
where many others escaped to the woods.^ A
detachment which was ordered to seize the inhabit-
ants of the district of Gobequid &iled entirely, find-
ing the settlements abandoned. In the country
about Fort Cumberland, Monckton, who directed the
operation in person, had very indifferent success,
catching in all but little more than a thousand.^ Le
Gueme, missionary priest in this neighborhood, gives
a characteristic and affecting incident of the embarka*
tion. "Many unhappy women, carried away by
excessive attachment to their husbands, whom they
had been allowed to see too often, and closing their
ears to the voice of religion and their missionary,
threw themselves blindly and despairingly into the
English vessels. And now was seen the saddest of
spectacles; for some of these women, solely from a
religious motive, refused to take with them their
grown-up sons and daughters. " ^ They would expose
their own souls to perdition among heretics, but not
those of their children.
When all, or nearly all, had been sent off from the
1 Winslow to Monckton, 8 November, 1766,
* Captain Adawu to Window, 20 November, 1766; see also Knox,
i 86, who exactly confirms Adams's figures.
• Monckton to Window, 7 October, 1766.
« Le Gueme h Provost, 10 Mar; 1766.
292 REMOVAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755
various points of departure, such of the houses and
bams as remained standing were burned, in obedience
to the orders of Lawrence, that those who had escaped
might be forced to come in and surrender themselves.
The whole number removed from the province, men,
women, and children, was a little above six thousand.
Many remained behind; and while some of these
withdrew to Canada, Isle St. Jean, and other dis-
tant retreats, the rest lurked in the woods or re-
turned to their old haunts, whence they waged, for
several years, a guerilla warfare against the Eng-
lish. Yet their strength was broken, and they were
no longer a danger to the province.
Of their exiled countrymen, one party overpowered
the crew of the vessel that carried them, ran her
ashore at the mouth of the St. John, and escaped.^
The rest were distributed among the colonies from
Massachusetts to Georgia, the master of each trans-
port having been provided with a letter from Lawrence
addressed to the governor of the province to which
he was bound, and desiring him to receive the
unwelcome strangers. The provincials were vexed
at the burden imposed upon them; and though the
Acadians were not in general ill-treated, their lot
was a hard one. Still more so was that of those
among them who escaped to Canada. The chronicle
of the Ursulines of Quebec, speaking of these last,
says that their misery was indescribable, and at-
1 Leftre commune de Drucour et Privost au Mini$tre, 6 Avril, 1766L
VaudrtuU au Miniitre, 1 Juin, 1766.
1766.] THEIR FATE. 298
tributes it to the poverty of the colony. But there
were other causes. The exiles found less pity from v^
kindred and fellow-Catholics than from the heretics
of the English colonies. Some of them who had
made their way to Canada from Boston, whither
they had been transported, sent word to a gentleman
of that place who had befriended them that they
wished to return.^ Bougainville, the celebrated
navigator, then aide-de-camp to Montcalm, says
concerning them: "They are djdng by wholesale.
Their past and present misery, joined to the rapacity
of the Canadians, who seek only to squeeze out of
them all the money they can, and then refuse them
the help so dearly bought, are the cause of this
mortality." "A citizen of Quebec," he says farther
on, "was in debt to one of the partners of the Great
Company [Oovemment officials leagued for plunder].
He had no means of paying. They gave him a great
number of Acadians to board and lodge. He starved
them with hunger and cold, got out of them what
money they had, and paid the extortioner. Quel
pays ! Quels rnceurs ! " *
Many of the exiles eventually reached Louisiana,
where their descendants now form a numerous and
distinct population. Some, after incredible hardship,
made their way back to Acadia, where, after the
peace, they remained unmolested, and, with those
^ HutchinBon, Hltt. Ma$$., iii. 42, note,
* BongainYiUe, Journal, 1766-1758. Hlf statements are sustained
bf Mfmoirei 8ur U Canada, 174^1760.
294 BEMOYAL OF THE ACADIANS. [1755.
who had escaped seizure, became the progenitors of
the present Acadians, now settled in various parts of
the British maritime provinces, notably at Madawaska,
on the upper St. John, and at Clare, in Nova Scotia.
Others were sent from Virginia to England; and
others again, after the complete conquest of the
country, found refuge in France.
In one particular the authors of the deportation
were disappointed in its results. They had hoped to
substitute a loyal population for a disaffected one;
but they failed for some time to find settlers for the
vacated lands. The Massachusetts soldiers, to whom
they were offered, would not stay in the province;
and it was not till five years later that families of
British stock began to occupy the waste fields of the
Acadians. This goes far to show that a longing to
become their heirs had not, as has been alleged, any
considerable part in the motives for their removal.
New England humanitarianism, melting into sen-
timentality at a tale of woe, has been unjust to its
own. Whatever judgment may be passed on the
cruel measure of wholesale expatriation, it was not
put in execution till eveiy resource of patience and
persuasion had been tried in vain. The agents of the
French court, civil, military, and ecclesiastical, had
made some act of force a necessity. We have seen
by what vile practices they produced in Acadia a
state of things intolerable, and impossible of con-
tinuance. They conjured up the tempest; and when
it burst on the heads of the unhappy people, they
1756.] THEIR FATE. 295
gave no help. The govemment of Louis XV. began
with making the Acadians its tools, and ended with
making them its victims.^
1 It may not be remembered that the predecessor of Louis XV.,
without the slightest provocation or the pretence of any, gave
orders that the whole Protestant population of the colony of New
York, amounting to about eighteen thousand, should be seized,
despoiled of their property, placed on board his ships, and dis-
persed among the other British colonies in such a way that they
could not reunite. Want of power alone prevented the execution
of the order. See " Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV.,"
loO, 199.
CHAPTER IX.
1766.
DDBSKAU.
EZPKDITION AOAIKBT CrOWN PoIWT. — WiLLIAM JOHHSOW. — VaU-
DBBUIL. — DlBSKAU. — JOHN8ON AND THIS INDIANS. — ThB FBO-
▼1NCIAL Armt. — Doubts and Delays. — March to Lakb
Gborob. — Sunday in Camp. — Adyancb of Dieskau: hb
OHANOES Plan. — Marches against Johnson. — Ambush. —
Rout of Proyincials. — Battle of Lake Gborob. — Rout
OF THB French. — Raob of the Mohawks. — Peril of Dibs-
KAU. — Inaction of Johnson. — The Hombward March.-—
Laurbls of Victory.
The next stroke of the campaign was to be the
capture of Crown Point, that dangerous neighbor
which, for a quarter of a century, had threatened the
northern colonies. Shirley, in January, had proposed
an attack on it to the ministry; and in February,
without waiting their reply, he laid the plan before
his Assembly. They accepted it, and voted money
for the pay and maintenance of twelve hundred men,
provided the adjacent colonies would contribute in
due proportion.^ Massachusetts showed a military
* Governor Shirley's Message to his Assembly, 13 February, 1755.
Resolutions of the Assembly of Massachusetts, 18 February, 1765. Shir-
le/s original idea was to build a fort on a rising ground near
Crown Point, in order to command it. This was soon abandoned
for the more honest and more practical plan of direct attack.
THE REGION OF
from Burreys made in
1762
Mi)*«.
FortlKTilliamHenij
^
./ rf * J ■» ■■
1765.1 EXPEDITION AGAINST CROWN POINT. 297
activity worthy of the reputation she had won.
Forty-five hundred of her men, or one in eight of her
adult males, volunteered to fight the French, and
enlisted for the various expeditions, some in the pay
of the province, and some in that of the King.i It
remained to name a commander for the Crown Point
enterprise. Nobody had power to do so, for Brad-
dock was not yet come ; but that time might not be
lost, Shirley, at the request of his Assembly, took
the responsibility on himself. If he had named a
Massachusetts ofiBcer, it would have roused the jealousy
of the other New England colonies ; and he therefore
appointed William Johnson of New York, thus
gratifying that important province and pleasing the
Five Nations, who at this time looked on Johnson
with even more than usual favor. Hereupon, in
reply to his request, Connecticut voted twelve hun-
dred men. New Hampshire five hundred, and Rhode
Island four hundred, all at their own charge; while
New York, a little later, promised eight hundred
more. When, in April, Braddock and the Council
at Alexandria approved the plan and the commander,
Shirley gave Johnson the commission of major-general
of the levies of Massachusetts ; and the governors of
the other provinces contributing to the expedition
gave him similar commissions for their respective
contingents. Never did general take the field with
authority so heterogeneous.
1 Correspondence of Shirfey, February, 1756. The number wat
mach increased later in the season.
298 DIESEAU. [1750.
He had never seen service, and knew nothing of
war. By birth he was Irish, of good family, being
nephew of Admiral Sir Peter Warren, who, owning
extensive wild lands on the Mohawk, had placed the
young man in charge of them nearly twenty years
before. Johnson was bom to prosper. He had
ambition, energy, an active mind, a tall, strong
person, a rough, jovial temper, and a quick adapta-
tion to his surroundings. He could drink flip with
Dutch boors, or Madeira with royal governors. He
liked the society of the great, would intrigue and
flatter when he had an end to gain, and foil a rival
without looking too closely at the means ; but com-
pared with the Indian traders who infested the border,
he was a model of uprightness. He lived by the
Mohawk in a fortified house which was a stronghold
against foes and a scene of hospitality to friends,
both white and red. Here — for his tastes were not
fastidious — presided for many years a Dutch or
Grerman wench whom he finally married; and after
her death a young Mohawk squaw took her place.
Over his neighbors, the Indians of the Five Nations,
and all others of their race with whom he had to
deal, he acquired a remarkable influence. He liked
them, adopted their ways, and treated them kindly
or sternly as the case required, but always with a
justice and honesty in strong contrast with the ras-
calities of the commission of Albany traders who had
lately managed their affairs, and whom they so
detested that one of their chiefs called them ^^not
i755.] WILLIAM JOHNSON. 299
men, but devils." Hence, when Johnson was made
Indian superintendent there was joy through all the
Iroquois confederacy. When, in addition, he was
made a general, he assembled the warriors in council
to engage them to aid the expedition.
This meeting took place at his own house, known
as Fort Johnson; and as more than eleven hundred
Indians appeared at his call, his larder was sorely
taxed to entertain them. The speeches were intermi-
nable. Johnson, a master of Indian rhetoric, knew
his audience too well not to contest with them the
palm of insufferable prolixity. The climax was
reached on the fourth day, and he threw down the
war-belt. An Oneida chief took it up; Stevens, the
interpreter, began the war-dance, and the assembled
warriors howled in chorus. Then a tub of punch
was brought in, and they all drank the King's
health.^ They showed less alacrity, however, to
fight his battles, and scarcely three hundred of them
would take the war-path. Too many of their friends
and relatives were enlisted for the French.
While the British colonists were preparing to
attack Crown Point, the French of Canada were
preparing to defend it. Duquesne, recalled from his
post, had resigned the government to the Marquis de
Yaudreuil, who had at his disposal the battalions of
regulars that had sailed in the spring from Brest
under Baron Dieskau. His first thought was to use
1 Report of Conference between Major-General Johnson and the
Indians, June, 1766.
800 DIESKAU. [176&
them for the capture of Oswego; but the letters of
Braddock, found on the battle-field, warned him of
the design against Crown Point; while a reconnoitring
party which had gone as far as the Hudson brought
back news that Johnson's forces were already in the
field. Therefore the plan was changed, and Dieskau
was ordered to lead the main body of his troops, not
to Lake Ontario, but to Lake Champlain. He passed
up the Richelieu, and embarked in boats and canoes
for Crown Point. The veteran knew that the foes
with whom he had to deal were but a mob of country-
men. He doubted not of putting them to rout, and
meant never to hold his hand till he had chased them
back to Albany.^ "Make all haste," Vaudreuil
wrote to him ; " for when you return we shall send
you to Oswego to execute our first design."^
Johnson on his part was preparing to advance.
In July about three thousand provincials were en-
camped near Albany, some on the " Flats " above the
town, and some on the meadows below. Hither,
too, came a swarm of Johnson's Mohawks, — warriors,
squaws, and children. They adorned the general's
face with war-paint, and he danced the war-dance;
then with his sword he cut the first slice from the ox
that had been roasted whole for their entertainment.
"I shall be glad," wrote the surgeon of a New Eng-
land regiment, " if they fight as eagerly as they ^
their ox and drank then- wine."
1 Bigot au Ministre, 27 AoAt, 1765. Ibid., 6 Septembre, 1765.
• M€moire pour servir d* Instruction h M, le Baron de Dieskau ,
Marichat des Camps et Armies du Roy, 15 AoUt, 1755.
1766.] DELAYS. 801
Above all things the expedition needed prompt-
ness; yet everything moved slowly. Five popular
legislatures controlled the troops and the supplies.
Connecticut had refused to send her men till Shirley
promised that her commanding officer should rank
next to Johnson. The whole movement was for
some time at a deadlock because the five governments
could not agree about their contributions of artillery
and stores.^ The New Hampshire regiment had
taken a short cut for Crown Point across the wilder-
ness of Vermont, but had been recalled in time to
save them from probable destruction. They were
now with the rest in the camp at Albany, in such
distress for provisions that a private subscription
was proposed for their relief.^
Johnson's army, crude as it was, had in it good
material. Here was Phineas Lyman, of Connecticut,
second in command, once a tutor at Yale College,
and more recently a lawyer, — a raw soldier, but a
vigorous and brave one; Colonel Moses Titcomb, ot
Massachusetts, who had fought with credit at Louis-
bourg; and Ephraim Williams, also colonel of a
Massachusetts regiment, a tall and portly man, who
had been a captain in the last war, member of the
General Court, and deputy sheriff. He made his
will in the camp at Albany, and left a legacy to
1 The Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated (London,
1768).
> Blanchard to Wentworth, 28 August, 1766, in Provincial Papers oj
New Hampshire, tL 429.
802 DIESEAU. [175&
found the school which has since become Williams
College. His relative, Stephen Williams, was chap-
lain of his regiment, and his brother Thomas was its
surgeon. Seth Pomeroy, gunsmith at Northampton,
who, like Titcomb, had seen service at Louisbourg,
was its lieutenant-colonel. He had left a wife at
home, an excellent matron, to whom he was con-
tinually writing affectionate letters, mingling house*
hold cares with news of the camp, and charging her
to see that their eldest boy, Seth, then in college at
New Haven, did not run off to the army. Pomeroy
had with him his brother Daniel ; and this he thought
was enough. Here, too, was a man whose name is
still a household word in New England, — the sturdy
Israel Putnam, private in a Connecticut regiment;
and another as bold as he, John Stark, lieutenant in
the New Hampshire levies, and the future victor of
Bennington.
The soldiers were no soldiers, but farmers and
farmers' sons who had volunteered for the summer
campaign. One of the corps had a blue uniform
faced with red. The rest wore their daily clothing.
Blankets had been served out to them by the several
provinces, but the greater part brought their own
guns ; some under the penalty of a fine if they came
without them, and some under the inducement of a
reward.^ They had no bayonets, but carried hatchets
in their belts as a sort of substitute.^ At their sides
* Prociamatiim of Governor ShirUff, 1766.
* Second Letter to a Friend on the Battle of Lake George.
1756.] THE PROVINCIAL ARMY. 808
were slung powder-homs, • on which, in the leisure
of the camp, they carved quaint devices with the
points of their jack-knives. They came chiefly from
plain New England homesteads, — rustic abodes,
unpainted and dingy, with long well-sweeps, capacious
bams, rough fields of pumpkins and com, and vast
kitchen chimneys, above which in winter hnng
squashes to keep them from frost, and cnins to keep
l^em from rust
As to the manners and morals of the army there is
conflict of evidence. In some respects nothing could
be more exemplary. **Not a chicken has been
stolen," says William Smith, of New York; while,
on the other hand. Colonel Ephraim Williams writes
to Colonel Israel Williams, then commanding on the
Massachusetts frontier: ^^We are a wicked, profane
army, especially the New York and Rhode Island
troops. Nothing to be heard among a great part of
them but the language of Hell. If Crown Point is
taken, it will not be for our stJses, but for those good
people left behind." ^ There was edifying regularity
in respect to form. Sermons twice a week, daily
prayers, and frequent psalm-singing alternated with
the much-needed military drill.* "Prayers among
us night and morning," writes Private Jonathaii
Caswell, of Massachusetts, to his father. " Here we
lie, knowing not when we shall march for Crown
Point; but I hope not long to tarry. Desiring your
^ Papers of Colonel Israel Williams.
* Massachusetts Archives,
804 DIESKAU. [1756.
prayers to God for me as I am agoing to war, I am
Your Ever Dutiful Son."i
To Pomeroy and some of his brothers in arms it
seemed that they were engaged in a kind of crusade
against the myrmidons of Rome. ^^ As you have at
heart the Protestant cause, " he wrote to his friend
Israel Williams, ^' so I ask an interest in your prayers
that the Lord of Hosts would go forth with us and
give us victory over our unreasonable, encroaching,
barbarous, murdering enemies.''
Both Williams the surgeon and Williams the
colonel chafed at the incessant delays. '^ The expe-
dition goes on very much as a snail runs," writes the
former to his wife; ^4t seems we may possibly see
Crown Point tiiis time twelve months." The colonel
was vexed because everything was out of joint in the
department of transportation: wagoners mutinous for
want of pay; ordnance stores, camp-ketties, and
provisions left behind. ^^ As to rum," he complains,
"it won't hold out nine weeks. Things appear
most melancholy to me." Even as he was writing, a
report came of the defeat of Braddock ; and, shocked
at the blow, his pen traced the words: "The Lord
have mercy on poor New England 1 "
Johnson had sent four Mohawk scouts to Canada.
They returned on the twenty-first of August with
the report that the French were all astir witii prepa-
ration, and that eight thousand men were coming to
defend Crown Point. On this a council of war was
1 Jonathan Caswell to John Caswell, 6 July, 1755.
1756.] MARCH FOR LAKE GEORGE. 805
called; and it was resolved to send to the several
colonies for reinforcements.^ Meanwhile the main
body had moved up the river to the spot called the
Great Carrying Place, where Lyman had begun a
fortified storehouse, which his men called Fort
Lyman, but which was afterwards named Fort
Edward. Two Indian trails led from this point to
the waters of Lake Champlain, one by way of Lake
George, and the other by way of Wood Creek.
There was doubt which course the army should take.
A road was begun to Wood Creek; then it was
countermanded, and a party was sent to explore the
path to Lake George. "With submission to the
general officers," Surgeon Williams again writes, "I
think it a very grand mistake that the business of
reconnoitring was not done months agone." It was
resolved at last to march for Lake George ; gangs of
axemen were sent to hew out the way; and on the
twenty-sixth two thousand men were ordered to the
lake, while Colonel Blanchard, of New Hampshire,
remained with five hundred to finish and defend Fort
Lyman.
The train of Dutch wagons, guarded by the homely
soldiery, jolted slowly over the stumps and roots of
the newly made road, and the regiments followed at
their leisure. The hardships of the way were not
without their consolations. The jovial Irishman who
held the chief command made himself very agreeable
1 Minutes of Council of War, 22 August, 1765. Epkraim WUUamM
to Benjamin Dwight, 22 August, 1756.
VOL. X. — 20
806 DIESKAU. [1765L
to the New England ofiBcers. ^ We went on about
four or five miles," 8a3n9 Pomeroy in his Journal,
^^then stopped, ate pieces of broken bread and cheese,
and drank some fresh lemon-punch and the best of
wine with General Johnson and some of the field-
ofiBcers. " It was the same on the next day. '^ Stopped
about noon and dined with General Johnson by a
small brook under a tree ; ate a good dinner of cold
boiled and roast venison; drank good fresh lemon-
punch and wine."
That afternoon they reached their destination,
fourteen miles from Fort Lyman. The most beauti-
ful lake in America lay before them; then more
beautiful than now, in the wild charm of untrodden
mountains and virgin forests. ^' I have given it the
name of Lake George," wrote Johnson to the Lords
of Trade, "not only in honor of His Majesty, but to
ascertain his undoubted dominion here." His men
made their camp on a piece of rough ground by the
edge of the water, pitching their tents among the
stumps of the newly felled trees. In their front was
a forest of pitch-pine ; on their right, a marsh, choked
with alders and swamp-maples ; on their left, the low
hill where Fort George was afterwards built; and at
their rear, the lake. Little was done to clear the
forest in front, though it would give excellent cover
to an enemy. Nor did Johnson take much pains to
learn the movements of the French in the direction
of Crown Point, though he sent scouts towards South
Bay and Wood Creek. Every day stores and bateaux,
1755.] SUNDAY IN CAMP. 307
or flat boats, came on wagons from Fort Lyman; and
preparation moved on with the leisure that had
marked it from the first. About three hundred
Mohawks came to the camp, and were regarded by
the New England men as nuisances. On Sunday
the gray-haired Stephen Williams preached to these
savage allies a long Calvinistic sermon, which must
have sorely perplexed the interpreter whose business
it was to turn it into Mohawk; and in the afternoon
young Chaplain Newell, of Rhode Island, expounded
to the New England men the somewhat untimely
text, "Love your enemies." On the next Sunday,
September seventh, Williams preached again, this
time to the whites from a text in Isaiah. It was a
peaceful day, fair and warm, with a few light
showers; yet not wholly a day of rest, for two hun-
dred wagons came up from Fort Lyman, loaded with
bateaux. After the sermon there was an alarm.
An Indian scout came in about sunset, and reported
that he had found the trail of a body of men moving
from South Bay towards Fort Lyman. Johnson
called for a volunteer to carry a letter of warning
to Colonel Blanchard, the commander. A wagoner
named Adams offered himself for the perilous service,
mounted, and galloped along the road with the letter.
Sentries were posted, and the camp fell asleep.
While Johnson lay at Lake George, Dieskau pre-
pared a surprise for him. The German baron had
reached Crown Point at the head of three thousand
five hundred and seventy-three men, regulars, Cana*
808 DIESKAU. [1765.
dians, and Indians.' He had no thought of waiting
there to be attacked. The troops were told to hold
themselves ready to move at a moment's notice.
OflScers — so ran the order — will take nothing with
them but one spare shirt, one spare pair of shoes, a
blanket, a bearskin, and provisions for twelve da3n3 ;
Indians are not to amuse themselves by taking scalps
till the enemy is entirely defeated, since they can kill
ten men in the time required to scalp one.^ Then
Dieskau moved on, with nearly all his force, to
Carillon, or Ticonderoga, a promontory commanding
both the routes by which alone Johnson could
advance, that of Wood Creek and that of Lake
George.
The Indian allies were commanded by Legardeur
de Saint-Pierre, the officer who had received Wash-
ington on his embassy to Fort Le BoBuf. These
unmanageable warriors were a constant annoyance to
Dieskau, being a species of humanity quite new to
him. "They drive us crazy," he says, "from morn-
ing till night. There is no end to their demands.
They have already eaten five oxen and as many hogs,
without counting the kegs of brandy they have
drunk. In short, one needs the patience of an angel
to get on with these devils ; and yet one must always
force himself to seem pleased with them." ^
They would scarcely even go out as scouts. At
1 Vaudreui! au Minittre, 26 Septembre, 1765.
■ Livre (TOrdreSj Ao4t, Septembre, 1755.
' Dieskau a Vaudreuil, 1 Stptemhre^ 1755.
1756.] THE ADVANCE 809
last, however, on the fourth of September, a recon-
noitring party came in with a scalp and an English
prisoner caught near Fort Lyman. He was ques-
tioned under the threat of being given to the Indians
for torture if he did not tell the truth; but, noth-
ing daunted, he invented a patriotic falsehood; and
thinking to lure his captors into a trap, told them
that the English army had fallen back to Albany,
leaving five hundred men at Fort Lyman, which he
represented as indefensible. Dieskau resolved on a
rapid movement to seize the place. At noon of the
same day, leaving a part of his force at Ticonderoga,
he embarked the rest in canoes and advanced along
the narrow prolongation of Lake Champlain that
stretched southward through the wilderness to where
the town of Whitehall now stands. He soon came
to a point where the lake dwindled to a mere canal,
while two mighty rocks, capped with stunted forests,
faced each other from the opposing banks. Here he
left an ofiBcer named Roquemaure with a detachment
of troops, and again advanced along a belt of quiet
water traced through the midst of a deep marsh,
green at that season with sedge and water-weeds, and
known to the English as the Drowned Lands.
Beyond, on either hand, crags feathered with birch
and fir, or hills mantled with woods, looked down on
the long procession of canoes.^ As they neared the
site of Whitehall, a passage opened on the right, the
^ I passed this way three weeks ago. There are some pdnti
where the scene is not much changed since Dieskau saw it.
810 DIESKAU. [175a
entrance to a sheet of lonely water slumbering in the
shadow of woody mountains, and forming the lake
then, as now, called South Bay. They advanced to
its head, landed where a small stream enters it, left
the canoes under a guard, and began their march
through the forest. They counted in all two
hundred and sixteen regulars of the battalions of
Languedoc and La Reine, six hundred and eighty-four
Canadians, and about six hundred Indians.^ Every
officer and man carried provisions for eight dajrs in
his knapsack. They encamped at night by a brook,
and in the morning, after hearing mass, marched
again. The evening of the next day brought them
near the road that led to Lake George. Fort Lyman
was but three miles distant. A man on horseback
galloped by; it was Adams, Johnson's unfortunate
messenger. The Indians shot him, and found the
letter in his pocket. Soon after, ten or twelve
wagons appeared in charge of mutinous drivers, who
had left the English camp without orders. Several
of them were shot, two were taken, and the rest ran
off. The two captives declared that, contrary to the
assertion of the prisoner at Ticonderoga, a large force
lay encamped at the lake. The Indians now held a
council, and presently gave out that they would not
attack the fort, which they thought well supplied
with cannon, but that they were willing to attack
the camp at Lake George. Remonstrance was lost
upon them. Dieskau was not young, but he was
^ M^moire aur I' Affaire du 8 Septembre,
1756.] MARCH AGAINST JOHNSON. 811
daring to rashness, and inflamed to emulation by the
victory over Braddock. The enemy were reported
greatly to outnumber him; but his Canadian advisers
had assured him that the English colony militia were
the worst troops on the face of the earth. "The
more there are," he said to the Canadians and
Indians, "the more we shall kill;" and in the morn-
ing the order was given to march for the lake.
They moved rapidly on through the waste of pines,
and soon entered the rugged valley that led to
Johnson's camp. ^On their right was a gorge where,
shadowed in bushes, gurgled a gloomy brook; and
beyond rose the cliffs that buttressed the rocky
heights of French Mountain, seen by glimpses
between the boughs. On their left rose gradually
the lower slopes of West Mountain. All was rock,
thicket, and forest ; there was no open space but the
road along which the regulars marched, while the
Canadians and Indians pushed their way through
the woods in such order as the broken ground would
permit.
They were three miles from the lake, when their
scouts brought in a prisoner who told them that a
column of English troops was approaching. Dieskau's
preparations were quickly made. While the regulars
halted on the road, the Canadians and Indians moved
to the front, where most of them hid in the forest
along the slopes of West Mountain, and the rest lay
close among the thickets on the other side. Thus,
when the English advanced to attack the regulars in
812 DIESKAU. (175&
front, they would find themselves caught in a double
ambush. No sight or sound betrayed the snare; but
behind every bush crouched a Canadian or a savage,
with gun cocked and ears intent, listening for the
tramp of the approaching column.
The wagoners who escaped the evening before had
reached the camp about midnight, and reported that
there was a war-party on the road near Fort Lyman.
Johnson had at this time twenty-two hundred effec-
tive men, besides his three hundred Indians.^ He
called a council of war in the morning, and a resolu-
tion was taken which can only be explained by a
complete misconception as to the force of the French.
It was determined to send out two detachments of
five hundred men each, one towards Fort Lyman,
and the other towards South Bay, the object being,
accoTding to Johnson, " to catch the enemy in their
retreat.*'* Hendrick, chief of the Mohawks, a brave
and sagacious warrior, expressed his dissent after a
fashion of his own. He picked up a stick and broke
it; then he picked up several sticks, and showed
that together they could not be broken. The hint
was taken, and the two detachments were joined in
one. Still the old savage shook his head. ^^ If they
are to be killed," he said, "they are too many; if
* Wraxall to Lieutenant-Governor Delancey, 10 September, 1756.
Wraxall was Johnson's aide-de-camp and secretary. The Second
Letter to a Friend says twenty-one hundred whites and two hundred
or three hundred Indians. Blodget, who was also on the spot, sets
the whites at two thousand.
* Letter to the Governors of the Several Colonies , 9 September, 1755.
1755.] THE AMBUSH. 818
they are to fight, they are too few." Nevertheless,
he resolved to share their fortunes; and mounting on
a gun-carriage, he harangued his warriors with a
voice so animated and gestures so expressive that
the New England officers listened in admiration,
though they understood not a word. One difficulty
remained. He was too old and fat to go afoot; but
Johnson lent him a horse, which he bestrode, and
trotted to the head of the column, followed by two
hundred of his warriors as fast as they could grease,
paint, and befeather themselves.
Captain Elisha Hawley was in his tent, finishing a
letter which he had just written to his brother Joseph ;
and these were the last words: ^^I am this minute
agoing out in company with five hundred men to see
if we can intercept 'em in their retreat, or find their
canoes in the Drowned Lands; and therefore must
conclude this letter." He closed and directed it;
and in an hour received his death-wound.
It was soon after eight o'clock when Ephraim
Williams ^left the camp wiiSi his regiment, marched
a little distance, and then waited for the rest of
the detachment under Lieutenant-Colonel Whiting.
Thus Dieskau had full time to l&y his ambush.
When Whiting came up, the whole moved on to-
gether, so little conscious of danger that no scouts
were thrown out in front or flank; and, in fuU
security, they entered the fatal snare. Before they
were completely involved in it, the sharp eye of old
Hendrick detected some sign of an enemy. At that
t'
814 DIESKAU. [17»
instant, whether by accident or design, a gun was
fired from the bushes. It is said that Dieskau's
Iroquois, seeing Mohawks, their relatives, in the van,
wished to warn them of danger. If so, the warning
came too late. The thickets on the left blazed out a
deadly fire, and the men fell by scores. In the
words of Dieskau, the head of the column ^^was
doubled up like a pack of cards.*' Hendrick's horse
was shot down, and the chief was killed with a bayo-
net as he tried to rise. Williams, seeing a rising
ground on his right, made for it, ciing on his men
to follow ; but as he climbed the slope, guns flashed
from the bushes, and a shot through the brain laid
him dead. The men in the rear pressed forward to
support their comrades, when a hot fire was suddenly
opened on them from the forest along their right
flank. Then there was a panic; some fled outright,
and the whole column recoiled. The van now
became the rear, and all the force of the enemy rushed
upon it, shouting and screeching. There was a
moment of total confusion; but a part of Williams's
regiment rallied under command of Whiting, and
covered the retreat, fighting behind trees like Indians,
and firing and falling back by turns, bravely aided
by some of the Mohawks and by a detachment which
Johnson sent to their aid. ^^ And a very handsome
retreat they made," writes Pomeroy; "and so con-
tinued till they came within about three quarters of
a mile of our camp. This was the last fire our men
gave our enemies, which killed great numbers of
1766.] PREPARATIONS FOR DEFENCE. 816
them; they were seen to drop as pigeons." So ended
the fray long known in New England fireside storjr
as the ^^ bloody morning scout. ** Dieskau now ordered
a halt, and sounded his trumpets to collect his scat-
tered men. His Indians, however, were sullen and
unmanageable, and the Canadians also showed signs
of wavering. The veteran who commanded them
all, Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, had been killed. At
length they were persuaded to move again, the
regulars leading the way.
About an hour after Williams and his men had
begun their march, a distant rattle of musketry was
heard at the camp; and as it grew nearer and louder,
the listeners knew that their comrades were on the
retreat. Then, at the eleventh hour, preparations
were begun for defence. A sort of barricade was
made along the front of the camp, partly of wagons,
and partly of inverted bateaux, but chiefly of the
trunks of trees hastily hewn down in the neighboring
forest and laid end to end in a single row. The line
extended from the southern slopes of the hill on the
left across a tract of rough ground to the marshes on
the right. The forest, choked with bushes and
climips of rank ferns, was within a few yards of the
barricade, and there was scarcely time to hack away
the intervening thickets. Three cannon were planted
to sweep the road that descended through the pines,
and another was dragged up to the ridge of the hill.
The defeated party began to come in; first, scared
fugitives both white and red; then, gangs of men
816 DIESKAU. [1755
bringing the wounded; and at last, an hour and a
half after the first fire was heard, the main detach-
ment was seen marching in compact bodies down the
road.
Five himdred men were detailed to guard the
flanks of the camp. The rest stood behind the
wagons or lay flat behind the logs and inverted
bateaux, the Massachusetts men on the right, and
the Connecticut men on the left. Besides Indians,
this actual fighting force was between sixteen and
seventeen hundred rustics, very few of whom had
been under fire before that morning. They were
hardly at their posts when they saw ranks of white-
coated soldiers moving down the road, and bayonets
that to them seemed innumerable glittering between
the boughs. At the same time a terrific burst of
war-whoops rose along the front ; and, in the words
of Pomeroy, "the Canadians and Indians, helter-
skelter, the woods full of them, came running with
undaunted courage right down the hill upon us,
expecting to make us fiee.*' ^ Some of the men grew
xmeasy; while the chief oflBcers, sword in hand,
threatened instant death to any who should stir from
their posts.' If Dieskau had made an assault at that
instant, there could be little doubt of the result.
This he well knew; but he was powerless. He
had his small force of regulars well in hand ; but the
rest, red and white, were beyond control, scattering
» Seth Pomeroy to his Wife, 10 September, 1766.
* Dr. Perex Marsh to William Williams, 26 September, 1756.
1766.] BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE. 817
through the woods and swamps, shouting, yelling,
and firing from behind trees. The regulars advanced
with intrepidity towards the^camp where the trees
were thin, deployed, and fired by platoons, till Cap-
tain Eyre, who commanded the artillery, opened on
them with grape, broke their ranks, and compelled
them to take to cover. The fusillade was now
general on both sides, and soon grew furious. " Per-
haps,*' Seth Pomeroy wrote to his wife, two days
after, " the hailstones from heaven were never much
thicker than their bullets came; but, blessed be
God ! that did not in the least daunt or disturb us. '*
Johnson received a flesh-wound in the thigh, and
spent the rest of the day in his tent. Lyman took
command; and it is a marvel that he escaped alive,
for he was four hours in the heat of the fire, directing
and animating the men. ^^It was the most awful
day my eyes ever beheld,*' wrote Surgeon Williams
to his wife ; " there seemed to be nothing but thunder
and lightning and perpetual pillars of smoke." To
him, his colleague Doctor Pynchon, one assistant,
and a young student called "Billy," fell the charge
of the woimded of his regiment. ** The bullets flew
about our ears all the time of dressing them; so we
thought best to leave our tent and retire a few rods
behind the shelter of a log-house." On the adjacent
hill stood one Blodget, who seems to have been a
sutler, watching, as well as bushes, trees, and smoke
would let him, the progress of the fight, of which he
soon after made and published a curious bird's-eye
818 DIESKAU. [175&
view. As the wounded men were carried to the
rear, the wagoners about the camp took their guns
and powder-horns, and joined in the fray. A
Mohawk, seeing one of these men still unarmed,
leaped over the barricade, tomahawked the nearest
Canadian, snatched his gun, and darted back imhurt
The brave savage found no imitators among his tribes-
men, most of whom did nothing but utter a few war-
whoops, saying that they had come to see their
English brothers fight. Some of the French Indians
opened a distant flank fire from the high ground
beyond the swamp on the right, but were driven off
by a few shells dropped among them.
Dieskau had directed his first attack against the
left and centre of Johnson's position. Making no
impression here, he tried to force the right, where
lay the regiments of Titcomb, Ruggles, and Williams.
The fire was hot for about an hour. Titcomb was
shot dead, a rod in front of the barricade, firing from
behind a tree like a common soldier. At length
Dieskau, exposing himself within short range of the
English line, was hit in the leg. His adjutant,
Montreuil, himself wounded, came to his aid, and
was washing the injured limb with brandy, when the
unfortunate commander was again hit in the knee
and thigh. He seated himself behind a tree, while
the adjutant called two Canadians to carry him to
the rear. One of them was instantly shot down.
Montreuil took his place ; but Dieskau refused to be
moved, bitterly denounced the Canadians and Indians,
1755.] ROUT OF THE FRENCH. 819
and ordered the adjutant to leave him and lead the
regulars in a last effort against the camp.
It was too late. Johnson^s men, singly or in small
squads, were already crossing their row of logs ; and
in a few moments the whole dashed forward with a
shout, falling upon the enemy with hatchets and the
butts of their guns. The French and their allies
fled. The wounded general still sat helpless by the
tree, when he saw a soldier aiming at him. He
signed to the man not to fire; but he pulled trigger,
shot him across the hips, leaped upon him, and
ordered him in French to surrender. "I said,*'
writes Dieskau, "*You rascal, why did you fire?
You see a man lying in his Wood on the ground,
and you shoot him I' He answered: ^ How did I
know that you had not got a pistol ? I had rather
kill the devil than have the devil kill me.' ^You
are a Frenchman? ' I asked. ^ Yes,' he replied; ^ it
is more than ten years since I left Canada; ' where-
upon several others fell on me and stripped me. I
told them to carry me to their general, which they
did. On learning who I was, he sent for surgeons,
and, though wounded himself, refused all assistance
till my wounds were dressed." ^
It was near five o'clock when the final rout took
place. Some time before, several hundred of the
1 Dialogue entre It Mar€chal de Saxe et It Baron de Dieskau aux
Champa Elye€ee, This paper it in the Archiyet de la Guerre, and
was eyidently written or inspired by Dietkaa himself. In spite of
its fanciful form it is a sober statement of the events of the can»-
paign. There is a translation of it in N, Y. Col, Docs., x. 840.
820 DIESKAU. [175S.
Canadians and Indians had left the field and returned
to the scene of the morning fight, to plunder and
scalp the dead. They were resting themselves near
a pool in the forest, close beside the road, when their
repose was interrupted by a volley of bullets. It
was fired by a scouting party from Fort Lyman,
chiefly backwoodsmen, under Captains Folsom and
McGinnis. The assailants were greatly outnumbered ;
but after a hard fight the Canadians and Indians
broke and fled. McGinnis was mortally wounded.
He continued to give orders till the firing was over;
then fainted, and was carried, dying, to the camp.
The bodies of the slain, according to tradition, were
thrown into the pool, which bears to this day the
name of Bloody Pond.
The various bands of fugitives rejoined each other
towards night, and encamped in the forest, then
made their way round the southern shoulder of
French Mountain, till, in the next evening, they
reached their canoes. Their plight was deplorable;
for they had left their knapsacks behind, and were
spent with fatigue and famine.
Meanwhile their captive general was not yet out
of danger. The Mohawks were furious at their
losses in the ambush of the morning, and above all
at the death of Hendrick. Scarcely were Dieskau's
woimds dressed, when several of them came into the
tent. There was a long and angry dispute in their
own language between them and Johnson, after
which they went out very sullenly. Dieskau asked
X765.] MOHAWK FEROCITY. 821
what they wanted. "What do they want?'* returned
Johnson. "To bum you, by God, eat you, and
smoke you in their pipes, in revenge for three or four
of their chiefs that were killed. But never fear;
you shall be safe with me, or else they shall kill us
both." ^ The Mohawks soon came back, and another
talk ensued, excited at first, and then more calm;
till at length the visitors, seemingly appeased, smiled,
gave Dieskau their hands in sign of friendship, and
quietly went out again. Johnson warned him that
he was not yet safe ; and when the prisoner, fearing
that his presence might incommode his host, asked
to be removed to another tent, a captain and fifty
men were ordered to guard him. In the morning
an Indian, alone and apparently unarmed, loitered
abput the entrance, and the stupid sentinel let him
pass in. He immediately drew a sword from under
a sort of cloak which he wore, and tried to stab
Dieskau, but was prevented by the colonel to whom
the tent belonged, who seized upon him, took away
his sword, and pushed him out. As soon as his
wounds would permit, Dieskau was carried on a
litter, strongly escorted, to Fort Lyman, whence he
was sent to Albany, and afterwards to New York.
He is profuse in expressions of gratitude for the
kindness shown him by the colonial officers, and
especially by Johnson. Of the provincial soldiers he
1 See the story as told by Dieskau to the celebrated Diderot, at
Paris, in 1760. M€moirta de Dideroi, i. 402 (1890). Compare N. T
Coi, Doc$,y z. 843.
TOL. I. — 21
822 DIESKAU. [1755.
remarked soon after the battle that in the morning
they fought like good boys, about noon like men, and
in the afternoon like devils.^ In the spring of 1757
he sailed for England, and was for a time at Fal*
mouth; whence Colonel Matthew Sewell, fearing
that he might see and learn too much, wrote to the
Earl of Holdemesse : ^^ The Baron has great penetra-
tion and quickness of apprehension. His long ser-
vice under Marshal Saxe renders him a man of real
consequence, to be cautiously observed. His cir-
cumstances deserve compassion, for indeed they are
very melancholy, and I much doubt of his being ever
perfectly cured." He was afterwards a long time at
Bath, for the benefit of the waters. In 1760 the
famous Diderot met him at Paris, cheerful and full
of anecdote, though wretchedly shattered by his
wounds. He died a few years later.
On the night after the battle the yeomen warriors
felt the truth of the saying that, next to defeat, the
saddest thing is victory. Comrades and friends by
scores lay scattered through the forest. As soon as
he c6uld snatch a moment's leisure, the overworked
surgeon sent the dismal tidings to his wife: ^^My
dear brother Ephraim was killed by a ball through
his head; poor brother Josiah's wound I fear wiU
prove mortal; poor Captain Hawley is yet alive,
though I did not think he would live two hours after
bringing him in." Daniel Pomeroy was shot dead;
and his brother Seth vrrote the news to his wife
^ Dr. Peru Mar$h to William William$, 25 September, 1755
1765.] AFTER THE BATTLE. 828
Rachel, who was just delivered of a child: **Deai
Sister, this brings heavy tidings; but let not your
heart sink at the news, though it be your loss of
a dear husband. Monday the eighth instant was a
memorable day; and truly you may say, had not the
Lord been on our side, we must all have been swal-
lowed up. My brother, being one that went out in
the first engagement, received a fatal shot through
the middle of the head." Seth Pomeroy found a
moment to write also to his own wife, whom he tells
that another attack is expected; adding, in quaintly
pious phrase: '^But as God hath begun to show
mercy, I hope he will go on to be gracious." Pomeroy
was employed during the next few days with four
hundred men in what he calls ^^ the melancholy piece
of business" of burying the dead. A letter-writer
of the time does not approve what was done on this
occasion. "Our people," he says, "not only buried
the French dead, but buried as many of them as
might be without the knowledge of our Indians, to
prevent their being scalped. This I call an excess of
civility;" his reason being that Braddock's dead
soldiers had been left to the wolves.
The English loss in killed, wounded, and missing
was two hundred and sixty-two;^ and that of the
French by their own account, two hundred and
twenty-eight,* — a somewhat modest result of five
1 Return of Killed, Wounded, and Miuting at the Battle of Lake
George,
* Doreil au Ministre, 20 Octohre, 1756. Surgeon WilUamt gixet
824 DIESKAU. [1750.
jiours' fighting. The English loss was chiefly in the
ambush of the morning, where the killed greatly
outnumbered the wounded, because those who fell
and could not be carried away were tomahawked by
Dieskau's Indians. In the fight at the camp, both
Indians and Canadians kept themselves so well under
cover that it was very diflficult for the New England
men to pick them off, while they on their part lay
close behind their row of logs. On the French side,
the regular officers and troops bore the brunt of the
battle and suffered the chief loss, nearly all of the
former and nearly half of the latter being killed or
wounded.
Johnson did not follow up his success. He says
that his men were tired. Yet five hundred of them
had stood still all day, and boats enough for their
transportation were lying on the beach. Ten miles
down the lake, a path led over a gorge of the moun-
tains to South Bay, where Dieskau had left his
canoes and provisions. It needed but a few hours to
reach and destroy them; but no such attempt was
made. Nor, till a week after, did Johnson send out
scouts to learn the strength of the enemy at Ticon-
deroga. Lyman strongly urged him to make an
effort to seize that important pass; but Johnson
thought only of holding his own position. " I think,"
he wrote, "we may expect very shortly a more
the English loss as two hundred and sixteen killed, and ninety-six
wounded. Pomeroy thinks that the French lost four or fiye hun
dred. Johnson places their loss at four hundred.
1766.] INACTIOK OF JOHNSON. 826
formidable attack.*' He made a solid breastwork to
defend his camp; and as reinforcements arrived, set
them at building a fort on a rising ground by the
lake. It is true that just after the battle he was
deficient in stores, and had not bateaux enough to
move his whole force. It is true, also, that he was
wounded, and that he was too jealous of Lyman to
delegate the command to him ; and so the days passed
till, within a fortnight, his nimble enemy were in<^
trenched at Ticonderoga in force enough to defy him.
The Crown Point expedition was a failure dis-
guised under an incidental success. The northern
provinces, especially Massachusetts and Connecticut,
did what they could to forward it, and after the
battle sent a herd of raw recruits to the scene of
action. Shirley wrote to Johnson from Oswego;
declared that his reasons for not advancing were
insufficient, and urged him to push for Ticonderoga
at once. Johnson replied that he had not wagons
enough, and that his troops were Ul-clothed, ill-fed,
discontented, insubordinate, and sickly. He com-
plained that discipline was out of the question,
because the officers were chosen by popular election;
that many of them were no better than the men,
unfit for command, and like so many ^^ heads of a
mob.*'^ The reinforcements began to come in, till,
in October, there were thirty-six hundred men in the
camp; and as most of them wore summer clothing
1 Shirley to Johnson, 19 September, 1756. Ibid,, 24 September,
1766. Johnson to Shirley, 22 September, 1756. Johnson to Phipps, 10
October, 1756 (Massachusetts Archiyes).
826 DIESKAU. [1755.
and had but one thin domestic blanket, they were
half frozen in the chill autumn nights.
Johnson called a council of war; and as he was
suffering from inflamed eyes, and was stiU kept in
his tent by his wound, he asked Lyman to preside,
— not unwilling, perhaps, to shift the responsibility
upon him. After several sessions and much debate,
the assembled officers decided that it was inexpedient
to proceed.^ Yet the army lay more than a month
longer at the lake, while the disgust of the men
increased daily under the rains, frosts, and snows of
a dreary November. On the twenty-second, Chandler,
chaplain of one of the Massachusetts regiments,
wrote in the interleaved almanac that served him as
a diary: ^^The men just ready to mutiny. Some
clubbed their firelocks and marched, but returned
back. Very rainy night. Miry water standing in
the tents. Very distressing time among the sick.'*
The men grew more and more unruly, and went off
in squads without asking leave. A difficult question
arose: Who should stay for the winter to garrison
the new forts, and who should command them ? It
was settled at last that a certain number of soldiers
from each province should be assigned to this un-
grateful service, and that Massachusetts should have
the first officer, Connecticut the second, and New
York the third. Then the camp broke up. " Thurs-
day the 27th," wrote the chaplain in his almanac,
^^ we set out about ten of the clock, marched in a
1 Reports of Council of War, 11-21 October, 1766.
1765.] THE LAURELS OF VICTORY. 827
body, about three thousand, the wagons and baggage
in the centre, our colonel much insulted by the
way." The soldiers dispersed to their villages and
farms, where in blustering winter nights, by the
blazing logs of New England hearthstones, they told
their friends and neighbors the story of the campaign.
The profit of it fell to Johnson. If he did not
gather the fruits of victory, at least he reaped its
laurels. He was a courtier in his rough way. He
had changed the name of Lac St. Sacrement to Lake
George, in compUment to the King. He now
changed that of Fort Lyman to Fort Edward, in com-
pliment to one of the King's grandsons; and, in com-
pliment to another, called his new fort at the lake,
William Henry. Of General Lyman he made no
mention in his report of the battle, and his partisans
wrote letters traducinjj that brave officer; though
Johnson is said to have confessed in private that he
owed him the victory. He himself found no lack of
eulogists; and, to quote the words of an able but
somewhat caustic and prejudiced opponent, ^^to the
panegyrical pen of his secretary, Mr. Wraxall, and
the sic volo sic jvieo of Lieutenant-Governor Delancey,
is to be ascribed that mighty renown which echoed
through the colonies, reverberated to Europe, and
elevated a raw, inexperienced youth into a kind of
second Marlborough."^ Parliament gave him five
^ R^mew of Military Operatiom in North America, in a Lttter to a
Nobleman (ascribed to WUliam liyingston).
On the Battle of Lake George a matt of papers wiU be found in
828 DIESKAU. [17U
thousand pounds, and the King made him a
baronet.
the N» Y, Col. Docs., vols. ti. and z. Those in VoL VL, taken
chieflj from the archives of New York, consist of official and pri-
rate letters, reports, etc., on the English side. Those in Vol. X.
are drawn chieflj from the archiyes of the French War Depart-
ment, and include the correspondence of Dieskau and his adjutant
Montreuil. I have examined most of them in the original. Besides
these I have obtained from the Archives de la Marine and other
sources a number of important additional papers, which have never
been printed, including Vaudreuirs reports to the Minister of War,
and his strictures on Dieskau, whom he accuses of disobejing
orders bj dividing his force ; also the translation of an English
journal of the campaign found in the pocket of a captured officer,
and a long account of the battle sent bj Bigot to the minister of
marine, 4 October, 1755.
I owe to the kindness of Theodore Pomeroj, Esq., a copj of the
Journal of Lieutenant-Colonel Seth Pomeroj, whose letters also are
full of interest ; as are those of Surgeon Williams, from the coUec-
tion of William L. Stone, Esq. The papers of Colonel Israel Wil-
liams, in the Library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, con-
tain many other curious letters relating to the campaign, extracts
from some of which are given in the text. One of the most curious
records of the battle is A Prospective-Plan of the Battle near Lake
George f with an Explanation thereof, containing a full, though short. His-
tory of that important Affair, by Samuel Blodget, occasionally at the
Camp when the Battle tnas fought. It is an engraving, printed at
Boston soon after the fight, of which it gives a clear idea. Font
years after, Blodget opened a shop in Boston, where, as appears by
his advertiseraonts in the newspapers, he sold " English (roods, also
English Hatts, etc." The Engraving is reproduced in the Docu-
mentary History of New York, iv., and elsewhere. The Explanation
thereof is only to be found complete in the original. This, as well
as the anonymous Second Letter to a Friend, also printed at Boston
in 1755, is excellent for the information it ffives as to the condition
of the g^und where the confiict took place, and the position of the
combatants. The unpublished Archives of Massachusetts; the
correspondence of Sir William Johnson ; the Review of Military
Operations in North A merica ; Dwight, Travels in New England and
New York, ill. ; and Hoyt, Antiquarian Researches on Indian Wars,
1755.] A COLONIAL POET. 829
— should also be mentioned. Dwight and Hoyt drew their Inf orma
tion from aged snnriTors of the battle. I hare repeatedly examined
the localities.
In the odd efFnsion of the colonial mnse called Tilden'g Poems,
chiefly to Animate and Route the Soldien, printed 1766, is a piece
stjled The Christian Hero, or New England's Triumph, beginning
with the invocation, —
'' O Heaven, indulge mj feeble Mose,
Teach her what numbers for to choose 1 "
and containing the following stanza, —
** Their Dieskan we from them detain,
While Canada aloud complains
And counts the numbers of their slain
And makes a diro complaint ;
'i iie Indians to their demon gods;
And with the French there 's little odds,
While images receive their nods,
Invoking rotten saints.*'
CHAPTER X.
1755, 1756.
SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR.
The Niagara Campaioh. — Albaht. — March to Oswego. —
Difficulties. — The Expedition abandoned. — Shirley and
Johnson. — Results of the Campaign. — The Scourge of
THE Border. — Trials of Washington. — Misery of the
Settlers. — Horror of their Situation. — Philadelphia
AND THE Quakers. — Disputes with the Penns. — Democ-
racy AND Feudalism. — Pennsylvanian Population. — Ap-
peals FROM THE Frontier. — Quarrel of Governor and
Assembly. — Help refused. — Desperation of the Border-
ers. — Fire and Slaughter. — The Assembly alarmed: they
PASS A Mock Militia Law; they are forced to yield.
The capture of Niagara was to finish the work of
the summer. This alone would have gained for
England the control of the valley of the Ohio, and
made Braddock's expedition superfluous. One
marvels at the short-sightedness, the dissensions, the
apathy which had left this key of the interior so long
in the hands of France without an effort to wrest it
from her. To master Niagara would be to cut the
communications of Canada with the whole system of
French forts and settlements in the West, and leave
them to perish like limbs of a g^irdled tree.
Major-General Shirley, in the flush of his new
martial honors, was to try his prentice hand at the
work. The lawyer-soldier could plan a campaign
2766.] ALBANY. 881
boldly and well. It remained to see how he would
do his part towards executing it. In July he arrived
at Albany, the starting-point of his own expedition
as well as that of Johnson. This little Dutch city
was an outpost of civilization. The Hudson, descend-
ing from the northern wilderness, connected it with
the lakes and streams that formed the thoroughfare
to Canada; while the Mohawk, flowing from the
west, was a liquid pathway to the forest homes of
the Five Nations. Before the war was over, a little
girl, Anne Mac Vicar, daughter of a Highland officer,
was left at Albany by her father, and spent several
years there in the house of Mrs. Schuyler, aunt of
General Schuyler of the Revolution. Long after,
married and middle-aged, she wrote down her recol-
lections of the place, — the fort on the hill behind;
the great street, grassy and broad, that descended
thence to the river, with market, guard-house, town-
hall, and two churches in the middle, and rows of
quaint Dutch-built houses on both sides, each de-
tached from its neighbors, each with its well, garden,
and green, and ite great overshadowing tree. Before
every house was a capacious porch, with seats where
the people gathered in the summer twilight; old men
at one door, matrons at another, young men and girls
mingling at a third ; while the cows with their tinkling
bells came from the common at the end of the town,
each stopping to be milked at the door of its owner;
and children, porringer in hand, sat on the steps, watch-
ing the process and waiting their evening meaL
882 SHIRLEY. — BORD£R WAR. [175&
Such was the quiet piotuie painted on the memoiy
of Anne MacVicar, and reproduced by the pen of
Mrs. Anne Grant. ^ The patriarchal, semi-rural town
had other aspects, not so pleasing. The men were
mainly engaged in the fur-trade, sometimes legally
with the Five Nations, and sometimes illegally with
the Indians of Canada, — an occupation which by no
means tends to soften the character. The Albany
Dutch traders were a rude, hard race, loving money,
and not always scrupulous as to the means of getting
it. Coming events, too, were soon to have their
effect on this secluded community. Regiments, red
and blue, trumpets, drums, banners, artillery trains,
and all the din of war transformed its peaceful
streets, and brought some attaint to domestic morals
hitherto commendable ; for during the next five years
Albany was to be the principal base of military
operations on the continent.
Shirley had left the place, and was now on his way
up the Mohawk. His force, much smaller than at
first intended, consisted of the New Jersey regiment,
which mustered five hundred men, known as the
"Jersey Blues,** and of the fiftieth and fifty-first regi-
ments, called respectively Shirley's and Pepperreirs.
These, though paid by the King and counted as
regulars, were in fact raw provincials, just raised in
the colonies, and wearing their gay uniforms with an
1 Memoirs of an American Lady (Bfrs. Schuyler), chap. yi. A
genuine picture of colonial life, and a charming book, though far
from being historically trustworthy. Compare the account of
Albany in Kalm, iL 102.
1765.] EXPEDITION TO OSWEGO. 888
awkward, unaccustomed air. How they gloried in
them may be gathered from a letter of Sergeant
James Gray, of Pepperrell's, to his brother John: "I
have two Holland shirts, found me by the King, and
two pair of shoes and two pair of worsted stockings ;
a good silver-laced hat (the lace I could sell for four
dollars); and my clothes is as fine scarlet broadcloth
as ever you did see. A sergeant here in the King's
regiment is counted as good as an ensign with you;
and one day in every week we must have our hair or
wigs powdered."^ Most of these gorgeous warriors
were already on their way to Oswego, their first
destination.
Shirley followed, embarking at the Dutch village
of Schenectady, and ascending the Mohawk with
about two hundred of the so-called regulars in
bateaux. They passed Fort Johnson, the two vil-
lages of the Mohawks, and the Palatine settlement of
German Flats ; left behind the last trace of civilized
man, rowed sixty miles through a wilderness, and
reached the Great Carrying Place, which divided the
waters that flow to the Hudson from those that flow
to Lake Ontario. Here now stands the city which
the classic zeal of its founders has adorned with the
name of Rome. Then all was swamp and forest,
traversed by a track that led to Wood Creek, — which
is not to be confounded with the Wood Creek of
Lake Champlain. Thither the bateaux were dragged
on sledges and launched on the dark and tortuous
^ Jam€» Gray to John Gray, 11 JrUy^ 1766.
884 8HIRLET. — BORDER WAR. [ITNk
stream, which, fed by a decoction of forest leaves
that oozed from the marshy shores, crept in shadow
through depths of foliage, with only a belt of illu-
mined sky gleaming between the jagged tree-tops.
Tall and lean with straining towards the light, their
rough, gaunt stems trickling with perpetual damps,
stood on either hand the silent hosts of the forest.
The skeletons of their dead, barkless, blanched, and
shattered, strewed the mudbanks and shallows;
others lay submerged, like bones of drowned mam-
moths, thrusting lank, white limbs above the sullen
water; and great trees, entire as yet, were flung by
age or storms athwart the current, — a bristling bar-
ricade of matted boughs. There was work for the
axe as well as for the oar; till at length Lake Oneida
opened before them, and they rowed all day over its
sunny breast, reached the outlet, and drifted down
the shallow eddies of the Onondaga, between walls
of verdure, silent as death, yet haunted everywhere
with ambushed danger. It was twenty days after
leaving Schenectady when they neared the mouth of
the river; and Lake Ontario greeted them, stretched
like a sea to the pale brink of the northern sky,
while on the bare hill at their left stood the miserable
little fort of Oswego.
Shirley's whole force soon arrived; but not the
needful provisions and stores. The machinery of
transportation and the commissariat was in the be-
wildered state inevitable among a peaceful people at
the beginning of a war; while the news of Braddock's
1765.] SHIRLEY'S LETTER TO MORRIS. 885
defeat produced such an effect on the boatmen and
the draymen at the canying-places that the greater
part deserted. Along with these disheartening tid-
ings, Shirley learned the death of his eldest son,
killed at the side of Braddock. He had with him a
second son, Captain John Shirley, a vivacious young
man, whom his father and his father's friends in
their familiar correspondence always called ^^Jaok.''
John Shirley's letters give a lively view of the
situation.
"I have sat down to write to you," — thus he
addresses Governor Morris, of Pennsylvania, who
seems to have had a great liking for him, — ^^ because
there is an opportunity of sending you a few lines;
and if you will promise to excuse blots, interlinea-
tions, and grease (for this is written in the open air,
upon the head of a pork-barrel, and twenty people
about me), I will begin another half-sheet. We are
not more than about fifteen hundred men fit for
duty; but that, I am pretty sure, if we can go in
time in our sloop, schooner, row-galleys, and whale-
boats, will be sufficient to take Frontenac; after
which we may venture to go upon the attack of
Niagara, but not before. I have not the least doubt
with myself of knocking down both these places yet
this fall, if we can get away in a week. If we take
or destroy their two vessels at Frontenac, and ruin
their harbor there, and destroy the two forts of that
and Niagara, I shall think we have done great things.
Nobody holds it out better than my father and
886 SHIRLEY.— BORDER WAR. [1755.
myself. We shall all of us relish a good house over
our heads, being all encamped, except the General
and some few field-officers, who have what are called
at Oswego houses; but they would in other countries
be called only sheds, except the fort, where my
father is. Adieu, dear sir; I hope my next will be
directed from Frontenac. Yours most affectionately,
John Shirley." 1
Fort Frontenac lay to the northward, fifty miles or
more across the lake. Niagara lay to the westward,
at the distance of four or five days by boat or canoe
along the south shore. At Frontenac there was a
French force of fourteen hundred regulars and
Canadians.^ They had vessels and canoes to cross
the lake and fall upon Oswego as soon as Shirley
should leave it to attack Niagara; for Braddock's
captured papers had revealed to them the English
plan. If they should take it, Shirley would be cut
1 The young anthor of this letter was, Uke his brother, a yictim
of the war.
** Permit me, good sir, to offer jon my hearty condolence upon
the death of my friend Jack, whose worth I admired, and feel for
him more than I can express. . . . Few men of his age had so many
friends." — Governor Morris to Shirley, 27 November, 1766.
" My heart bleeds for Mr. Shirley. He must be oyerwhelmed
with Orief when he hears of Capt. John Shirley's Death, of which
I have an Account by the last Post from New York, where he died
of a Flux and Ferer that he had contracted at Oswego. The lost
of Two Sons in one Campaign scarcely admits of Consolation. I
feel the Anguish of the unhappy Father, and mix my Tears rery
heartily with his. I have had an intimate Acquaintance with Both
of Them for many Years, and know well their inestimable Value "
•» Morris to Dinwiddie, 29 November, 1766.
i Bigoi cm Minutre, 27 Ao(U, 1766.
1765.] DIFFICULTIEa 887
off from his supplies and placed iu desperate jeopardy,
with the enemy in his rear. Hence it is that John
Shirley insists on taking Frontenac before attempting
Niagara. But the task was not easy; for the French
force at the former place was about equal in effective
strength to that of the English at Oswego. At
Niagara, too, the French had, at the end of August,
nearly twelve hundred Canadians and Indians from
Fort Duquesne and the upper lakes. ^ Shirley was
but imperfectly informed by his scouts of the unex-
pected strength of the opposition that awaited him;
but he knew enough to see that his position was a
difficult one. His movement on Niagara was stopped,
first by want of provisions, and secondly because he
was checkmated by the troops at Frontenac. He did
not despair. Want of courage was not among his
failings, and he was but too ready to take risks. He
called a council of officers, told them that the total
number of men fit for duly was thirteen hundred and
seventy-six, and that as soon as provisions enough
should arrive he would embark for Niagara with six
hundred soldiers and as many Indians as possible,
leaving the rest to defend Oswego against the
expected attack from Fort Frontenac.^
^^ All I am uneasy about is our provisions,'' writes
John Shirley to his friend Morris; ^^our men have
been upon half allowance of bread these three weeks
past, and no rum given to 'em. My father yesterday
^ Btgot au Ministre, 5 Septemhre, 1766.
• Minute* of a Council of War at Oswego, 18 September, 1766i
VOL. I. — 22
888 SHIRLET.— BORDER WAR. [175&
called all the Indians together and made 'em a speech
on the subject of General Johnson's engagement,
which he calculated to inspire them with a spirit of
revenge." After the speech he gave them a bullock
for a feast, which they roasted and ate, pretending
that they were eating the governor of Canada I Some
provisions arriving, orders were given to embark on
the next day; but the officers murmured their dis-
sent. The weather was persistently bad, their vessels
would not hold half the party, and the bateaux,
made only for river navigation, would infallibly
founder on the treacherous and stormy lake. ^^ All
the field-officers," sajrs John Shirley, ^Hhink it too
rash an attempt; and I have heard so much of it that
I think it my duty to let my father know what I
hear." Another council was called; and the general,
reluctantly convinced of the danger, put the question
whether to go or not. The situation admitted but
one reply. The council was of opinion that for
the present the enterprise was impracticable; that
Oswego should be strengthened, more vessels built,
and preparation made to renew the attempt as soon
as spring opened.^ All thoughts of active opera-
tions were now suspended, and during what was
left of the season the troops exchanged the musket
for the spade, saw, and axe. At the end of Octo-
ber, leaving seven hundred men at Oswego, Shirley
returned to Albany, and narrowly escaped drowning
on the way, while passing a rapid in a whale-boat,
^ yfinutes of a Council of War at Oswego, 27 September, 1765.
1755.] SHIRLEY AND JOHNSON. 889
to try the fitness of that species of craft for river
navigation.^
Unfortunately for him, he had fallen out with
Johnson, whom he had made what he was, but who
now turned against him, — a seeming ingratitude not
wholly unprovoked. Shirley had diverted the New
Jersey regiment, destined originally for Crown Point,
to his own expedition against Niagara. Naturally
inclined to keep all the reins in his own hands, he
had encroached on Johnson's new office of Indian
superintendent, held conferences with the Five
Nations, and employed agents of his own to deal
with them. These agents were persons obnoxious to
Johnson, being allied with the clique of Dutch
traders at Albany, who hated him because he had
supplanted them in the direction of Indian affairs;
and in a violent letter to the Lords of Trade, he
inveighs against their ^4icentious and abandoned
proceedings," "villanous conduct," "scurrilous false-
hoods," and "base and insolent behavior."* "I am
considerable enough," he says, "to have enemies and
to be envied;"' and he declares he has proof that
Shirley told the Mohawks that he, Johnson, was ai
^ On the Niagara exi>edition, Braddock's Inttrudions to Major*
General Shirley, Correspondence of Shirley, 1766. Conduct of Major-
General Shirley (London, 1768). Letters of John Shirlej in Penn-
sylvania Archives, ii. Bradstreet to Shirley, 17 August, 1766. MSS.
in MassachoBetts Archiyes. Review of Military Operations in North
America, Gentleman's Magazine, \lbl, p. 73. London Magaxin^
1769, p. 694. TrumbuU, Hist. Connecticut, ii. 870.
' Johnson to the Lords of Trade, 3 September, 1766.
• Ihid., 17 January, 1766.
840 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1765.
upstart of his creating, whom he had Bet up and
could pull down. Again, he charges Shirley's agents
with trying to "debauch the Indians from joining
him;" while Shirley, on his side, retorts the same
complaint against his accuser.^ When, by the death
of Braddock, Shirley became commander-in-chief,
Johnson grew so restive at being subject to his
instructions that he declined to hold the management
of Indian affairs unless it was made independent of
his rival. The dispute became mingled with the
teapot-tempest of New York provincial politics.
The lieutenant-governor, Delancey, a politician of
restless ambition and consummate dexterity, had
taken umbrage at Shirley, of whose rising honors,
not borne with remarkable humiUty, he appears to
have been jealous. Delancey had hitherto favored
the Dutch faction in the Assembly, hostile to John-
son ; but he now changed attitude, and joined hands
with him against the object of their common dislike.
The one was strong in the prestige of a loudly
trumpeted victory, and the other had means of influ-
ence over the ministry. Their coalition boded ill to
Shirley, and he soon felt its effects.*
The campaign was now closed, — a sufficiently
active one, seeing that the two nations were nomi-
* John Shirley to Governor Morris^ 12 August^ 1756.
• On this a£fair, see various papers in N, Y, Col. Docs., yi., rii.
Smith, Hift. New York, Part II., Chaps. IV. V. Review of Military
Operations in North America. Both Smith and Livingston, tho
author of the Review, were personally cognizant of the course oi
the dispute.
1755.] DUMAS ATTACKS THE BORDERa 841
nally at peace. A disastrous rout on the Mononga*
hela, failure at Niagara, a barren victory at Lake
George, and three forts captured in Acadia, were
the disappointing results on the part of England.
Nor had her enemies cause to boast. The Indians,
it is true, had won a battle for them: but they had
suffered mortifjdng defeat from a raw militia; their
general was a prisoner; and they had lost Acadia
past hope.
The campaign was over; but not its effects. It
remains to see what befell from the rout of Braddock
and the unpardonable retreat of Dunbar from the
frontier which it was his duty to defend. Dumas
had replaced Contrecoeur in the command of Fort
Duquesne; and his first care was to set on the
western tribes to attack the border settlements. His
success was triumphant. The Delawares and Shawa-
noes, old friends of the English, but for years past
tending to alienation through neglect and ill-usage,
now took the lead against them. Many of the
Mingoes, or Five Nation Indians on the Ohio, also
took up the hatchet, as did various remoter tribes.
The West rose like a nest of hornets, and swarmed
in fury against the English frontier. Such was the
consequence of the defeat of Braddock aided by the
skilful devices of the French commander. **It is by
means such as I have mentioned," says Dumas, ^^ varied
in every form to suit the occasion, that I have suc-
ceeded in ruining the three adjacent provinces, Penn-
sylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, driving off the
342 8HIRLET. — BORDER WAR. [17{^.
inhabitants, and totally de8t3X)ying the settlements
over a tract of ooontiy thirty leagues wide, reckoning
from the line of Fort Cumberland. M. de Contrecceur
had not been gone a week before I had six or seven
different war-parties in the field at once, bXwsljs
accompanied by Frenchmen. Thus far, we have
lost only two officers and a few soldiers; but the
Indian villages are full of prisoners of every age and
sex. The enemy has lost far more since the battle
than on the day of his defeat."^
Dumas, required by the orders of his superiors to
wage a detestable warfare against helpless settlers
and their families, did what he could to temper its
horrors, and enjoined the officers who went with the
Indians to spare na effort to prevent them from tor-
turing prisoners.^ The attempt should be set down
to his honor; but it did not avail much. In the
record of cruelties committed this year on the
borders, we find repeated instances of chUdren scalped
alive. "They kill all they meet," writes a French
priest; "and after having abused the women and
maidens, they slaughter or bum them."^
Washing^n was now in command of the Virginia
1 Dunuu au Ministre, 24 Juillet, 1766.
* M€moire9 de Famille de CAhb€ Catgrain, cited in Le Foyer Can*
adien, iii. 26, where an extract ii given from an order of Dnmas to
Baby, a Canadian officer. Orders of Contrecceur and Ligneris to
the same effect are also given. A similar order, signed by Dumas,
was found in the pocket of DouviUe, an officer kiUed by the Eng-
lish on the frontier. Writings of Washington, ii. 137, note.
' Bev, Claude Godejroif Cocquard, S,J,,hson Frere, Mars (?),
1767.
1755.] MISERY OF THE FRONTIERS. 348
regiment, consisting of a thousand men, raised after*
wards to fifteen hundred. With these he was to pro-
tect a frontier of three hundred and fifty miles
against more numerous enemies, who could choose
their time and place of attack. His headquarters
were at Winchester. His men were an ungovernable
crew, enlisted chiefly on the turbulent border, and
resenting every kind of discipline as levelling them
with negroes; while the sympathizing House of
Burgesses hesitated for months to pass any law for
enforcing obedience, lest it should trench on the
liberties of free white men. The service was to the
last degree unpopular. ^ If we talk of obliging men
to serve their country," wrote Landon Carter, "we
are sure to hear a fellow mumble over the words
* liberty * and ' property ' a thousand times." ^ The
people, too, were in mortal fear of a slave insur-
rection, and therefore dared not go far from home.'
Meanwhile a panic reigned along the border. Cap-
tain Waggoner, passing a gap in the Blue Ridge,
could hardly make his way for the crowd of fugitives.
"Every day," writes Washington, "we have accounts
of such cruelties and barbarities as are shocking to
human nature. It is not possible to conceive the
situation and danger of this miserable country. Such
numbers of French and Indians are all around that
no road is safe."
These frontiers had always been at peace. No
1 Extract in Writingt of Washington, il. 145, note,
3 Letteri qf Dinwiddie, 1765.
344 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1765.
forts of refuge had thus far been built, and the
scattered settlers had no choice but flight. Their first
impulse was to put wife and children beyond reach
of the tomahawk. As autumn advanced, the invad-
ing bands grew more and more audacious. Braddock
had opened a road for them by which they could
cross the mountains at their ease; and scouts from
Fort Cumberland reported that this road was beaten
by as many feet as when the English army passed
last summer. Washington was beset with difficulties.
Men and officers alike were iinruly and mutinous.
He was at once blamed for their disorders and refused
the means of repressing them. Envious detractors
published slanders against him. A petty Maryland
captain, who had once had a commission from the
King, refused to obey his orders, and stirred up
factions among his officers. Dinwiddle gave him
cold support. The temper of the old Scotchman,
crabbed at the best, had been soured by disappoint-
ment, vexation, weariness, and ill-health. He had,
besides, a friend and countryman. Colonel Innes,
whom, had he dared, he would gladly have put in
Washington's place. He was full of zeal in the
common cause, and wanted to direct the defence of
the borders from his house at Williamsburg, two
hundred miles distant. Washington never hesitated
to obey; but he accompanied his obedience by a
statement of his own convictions and his reasons for
them, which, though couched in terms the most
respectful, galled his irascible chief. The governor
1756, 1756.] WASHINGTON. 845
acknowledged his merit, but bore him no love, and
sometimes wrote to him in terms which must have
tried his high temper to the utmost. Sometimes,
though rarely, he gave words to his emotion.
"Your Honor," he ^vrote in April, "may see to
what unhappy straits the distressed inhabitants and
myself are reduced. I see inevitable destruction in
so clear a light that unless vigorous measures are
taken by the Assembly, and speedy assistance sent
from below, the poor inhabitants that are now in
forts must unavoidably fall, while the remainder are
flying before the barbarous foe. In fine, the melan-
choly situation of the people; the little prospect of
assistance ; the gross and scandalous abuse cast upon
the officers in general, which is reflecting upon me in
particular for suffering misconduct of such extraor-
dinary kinds; and the distant prospect, if any, of
gaining honor and reputation in the service, — cause
me to lament the hour that gave me a conmiission,
and would induce me at any other time than this of
imminent danger to resign, without one hesitating
moment, a command from which I never expect to
reap either honor or benefit, but, on the contrary,
have almost an absolute certainty of incurring dis-
pleasure below, while the murder of helpless families
may be laid to my account here.
" The supplicating tears of the women and moving
petitions of the men melt me into such deadly sor«
row that I solemnly declare, if I know my own
mind, I could offer myself a willing sacrifice to the
846 SHIRLEY. - BORDER WAR. [1755,1756.
butx^hering enemy, provided that would contribute
to the people's ease."^
In the turmoil around him, patriotism and public
duty seemed all to be centred in the breast of one
heroic youth. He was respected and generally
beloved, but he did not kindle enthusiasm. His
were the qualities of an unflagging courage, an all-
enduring fortitude, and a deep trust. He showed an
astonishing maturity of character, and the kind of
mastery over others which begins with mastery over
self. At twenty-four he was the foremost man, and
acknowledged as such, along the whole long line of
the western border.
To feel the situation, the nature of these frontiers
must be kept in mind. Along the skirts of the
southern and middle colonies ran for six or seven
hundred miles a loose, thin, dishevelled fringe of
population, the half -barbarous pioneers of advancing
civilization. Their rude dwellings were often miles
apart. Buried in woods, the settler lived in an
appalling loneliness. A low-browed cabin of logs,
with moss stuflPed in the chinks to keep out the wind,
roof covered with sheets of bark, chimney of sticks
and clay, and square holes closed by a shutter in place
of windows; an unkempt matron, lean with hard
work, and a brood of children with bare heads and
tattered garments eked out by deerskin, — such was
the home of the pioneer in the remoter and wilder
districts. The scene around bore witness to his
1 Writingi of Washingiton, ii. 143.
1755, 1756.] SAVAGE RAIDS. 847
labors. It was the repulsive transition from savagery
to civilization, from the forest to the farm. The
victims of his axe lay strewn about the dismal '^ clear-
ing "' in a chaos of prostrate trunks, tangled boughs,
and withered leaves, waiting for the fire that was to
be the next agent in the process of improvement;
while around, voiceless and grim, stood the living
forest, gazing on the desolation, and biding its own
day of doom. The owner of the cabin was miles
a^vay, hunting in the woods for the wild turkey and
venison which were the chief food of himself and his
family till the soil could be tamed into the bearing
of crops.
Towards night he returned; and as he issued from
the forest shadows he saw a column of blue smoke
rising quietly in the still evening air. He ran to the
spot; and there, among the smouldering logs of his
dwelling, lay, scalped and mangled, the dead bodies
of wife and children. A war-party had passed that
way. Breathless, palpitating, his brain on fire, he
rushed through the thickening night to carry the
alarm to his nearest neighbor, three miles distant
Such was the character and the fate of many incipi-
ent settlements of the utmost border. Farther east,
they had a difPerent aspect. Here, small farms with
well-built log-houses, cattle, crops of wheat, and
Indian com, were strung at intervals along some
woody valley of the lower Alleghanies : yesterday a
scene of hardy toil; to-day swept with destruction
from end to end. There was no warning; no time
848 SraRLEY — BORDER WAR. [1756, 175e.
for concert, perhaps none for flight. Sadden as the
leaping panther, a pack of human wolves burst out
of the forest, did their work, and vanished.
If the country had been an open one, like the
plains beyond the Mississippi, the situation would
have been less frightful; but the forest was every-
where, rolled over hill and valley in billows of in-
terminable green, — a leafy maze, a mystery of shade,
a universal hiding-place, where murder might lurk
unseen at its victim's side, and Nature seemed formed
to nurse the mind with wild and dark imaginings.
The detail of blood is set down in the untutored
words of those who saw and felt it. But there was a
suffering that had no record, — the mortal fear of
women and children in the solitude of their wilder-
ness homes, haunted, waking and sleeping, with
nightmares of horror that were but the forecast of an
imminent reality. The country had in past years
been so peaceful, and the Indians so friendly, that
many of the settlers, especially on the Pennsylvanian
border, had no arms, and were doubly in need of help
from the government. In Virginia they had it, such
as it was. In Pennsylvania they had for months
none whatever; and the Assembly turned a deaf ear
to their cries.
Far to the east, sheltered from danger, lay staid
and prosperous Philadelphia, the home of order and
thrift. It took its stamp from the Quakers, its
original and dominant population, set apart from the
other colonists not only in character and creed, but
1755, 1766.] PENNSYLVANIAN DISPUTES. 849
in the outward symbols of a peculiar dress and a daily
sacrifice of grammar on the altar of religion. The
even tenor of their lives counteracted the effects of
climate, and they are said to have been perceptibly
more rotund in feature and person than their neigh-
bors. Yet, broad and humanizing as was their faith,
they were capable of extreme bitterness towards oppo-
nents, clung tenaciously to power, and were jealous
for the ascendency of their sect, which had begun to
show signs of wavering. On other sects they looked
askance, and regarded the Presbyterians in particular
with a dislike which in moments of crisis rose to
detestation.^ They held it sin to fight, and above all
to fight against Indians.
Here was one cause of military paralysis. It was
reinforced by another. The old standing quarrel
between governor and assembly had grown more
violent than ever ; and this as a direct consequence
of the public distress, which above all things de-
manded harmony. The dispute turned this time on
a single issue, — that of the taxation of the pro-
prietary estates. The estates in question consisted
of vast tracts of wild land, yielding no income, and
at present to a great extent worthless, being overrun
by the enemy. ^ The Quaker Assembly had refused
to protect them ; and on one occasion had rejected an
1 See a crowd of party pamphlets, Quaker against Presbjterian,
which appeared at Philadelphia in 1764, abusirelj acrimonious on
both sides.
*' The productive estates of the proprietaries were taxed through
the tenants.
850 SHIRLEY. —BORDER WAR. [1755, 175a
offer of the proprietaries to join them in paying the
coBt of their defence.^ But though they would not
defend the land, they insisted on taxing it; and
farther insisted that the taxes upon it should be laid
by the provincial assessors. By a law of the province,
these assessors were chosen by popular vote ; and in
consenting to this law, the proprietaries had expressly
provided that their estates should be exempted from
all taxes to be laid by officials in whose appointment
they had no voice.' Thomas and Richard Penn, the
present proprietaries, had debarred their deputy, the
governor, both by the terms of his commission and
by special instruction, from consenting to such taxa-
tion, and had laid him under heavy bonds to secure
his obedience. Thus there was another side to the
question than that of the Assembly; though our
American writers have been slow to acknowledge it.
Benjamin Franklin was leader in the Assembly
and shared its views. The feudal proprietorship of
the Penn family was odious to his democratic nature.
It was, in truth, a pestilent anomaly, repugnant to
the genius of the people ; and the disposition and
character of the present proprietaries did not tend to
render it less vexatious. Yet there were considera-
^ The proprietaries offered to contribute to the cost of building
and maintaining a fort on the spot where the French soon after
built Fort Duquesne. This plan, vigorously executed, would have
saved the province from a deluge of miseries. One of the reasons
assigned by the Assembly for rejecting it was that it would irritate
the enemy. See supra, 64.
* A Brief Vteiv of the Conduct of Pennsylvania for the year 1756.
1766,1756] CHARACTER OF THE POPULATION. 361
tions which might have tempered the impatient hatred
with which the colonists regarded it. The first
proprietary, William Penn, had used his feudal rights
in the interest of a broad liberalism; and through
them had established the popular institutions and
universal tolerance which made Pennsylvania the
most democratic province in America, and nursed the
spirit of liberty which now revolted against his heirs.
The one absorbing passion of Pennsylvania was
resistance to theii* deputy, the governor. The badge
of feudalism, though light, was insufferably irritat-
ing; and the sons of William Penn were moreover
detested by the Quakers as renegades from the faith
of their father. Thus the immediate political con-
flict engrossed mind and heart; and in the rancor of
their quarrel with the proprietaries, the Assembly
forgot the French and Indians.
In Philadelphia and the eastern districts the
Quakers could ply their trades, tend their shops, till
their farms, and discourse at their ease on the wicked-
ness of war. The midland counties, too, were for
the most part tolerably safe. They were occupied
mainly by crude Grerman peasants, who nearly
equalled in number all the rest of the population,
and who, gathered at the centre of the province,
formed a mass politically indigestible. Translated
from servitude to the most ample liberty, they hated
the thought of miUtaiy service, which reminded them
of former oppression, cared little whether they lived
under France or England, and, thinking themselves
862 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755.
out of danger, had no mind to be taxed for the
defence of others. But while the great body of the
Germans were sheltered from harm, those of them
who lived farther westward were not so fortunate.
Here, mixed with Scotch Irish Presbyterians and
Celtic Irish Catholics, they formed a rough border
population, the discordant elements of which could
rarely unite for common action ; yet, though confused
and disjointed, they were a living rampart to the rest
of the colony. Against them raged the furies of
Indian war; and, maddened with distress and terror,
they cried aloud for help.
Petition after petition came from the borders for
arms and ammunition, and for a militia law to enable
the people to organize and defend themselves. The
Quakers resisted. ^^They have taken uncommon
pains," writes Governor Morris to Shirley, "to pre-
vent the people from taking up arms." ^ Braddock's
defeat, they declared, was a just judgment on him
and his soldiers for molesting the French in their
settlements on the Ohio.' A bill was passed by the
Assembly for raising fifty thousand pounds for the
King's use by a tax which included the proprietary
lands. The governor, constrained by his instructions
and his bonds, rejected it. "I can only say," he told
them, "that I will readily pass a bill for striking
any sum in paper money the present exigency may
loquire, provided funds are established for sinking
1 Morrii to Shirley, 16 August, 1765.
' Morris to Sir Thoma$ Robinson, 28 August, 1755.
1765.] THE PENNSYLVANIA QUARREL. 868
the same in five years." Messages long and acri">
monious were exchanged between the parties. The
Assembly, had they chosen, could easily have raised
money enough by methods not involving the point in
dispute; but they thought they saw in the crisis a
means of forcing the governor to yield. The Quakers
had an alternative motive : if the governor gave way,
it was a political victory ; if he stood fast, their non-
resistance principles would triumph, and in this
triumph their ascendency as a sect would be con-
firmed. The debate grew every day more bitter and
unmannerly. The governor could not yield; the
Assembly would not. There was a complete dead-
lock. The Assembly requested the governor " not to
make himself the hateful instrument of reducing a
free people to the abject state of vassalage." ^ As
the raising of money and the control of its expendi-
ture was in their hands ; as he could not prorogue or
dissolve them, and as they could adjourn on their
own motion to such time as pleased them; as they
paid his support, and could withhold it if he offended
them, — which they did in the present case, — it
seemed no easy task for him to reduce them to vas-
salage. " What must we do, " pursued the Assembly,
^^to please this kind governor, who takes so much
pains to render us obnoxious to our sovereign and
odious to our fellow-subjects? If we only tell him
that the difficulties he meets with are not owing to
the causes he names, — which indeed have no exist-
^ Colonial Records of Pa,, li, 684.
VOL.1. — 23
854 SHIRLEY. ^ BORDER WAR. [175&
ence, — but to his own want of skill and abilities for
his station, he takes it extremely amiss, and sajns
* we forget all decency to those in authority. ' We
are apt to think there is likewise some decency due
to the Assembly as a part of the government; and
though we have not, like the governor, had a courtly
education, but are plain men, and must be very
imperfect in our politeness, yet we think we have no
chance of improving by his example."^ Again, in
another Message, the Assembly, with a thrust at
Morris himself, tell him that colonial governors have
often been ^^ transient persons, of broken fortunes,
greedy of money, destitute of all concern for those
they govern, often their enemies, and endeavoring
not only to oppress, but to defame them.'*' In
such unseemly fashion was the battle waged. Morris,
who was hhnself a provincial, showed more temper
and dignity; though there was not too much on
either side. ** The Assembly, " he wrote to Shirley,
^seem determined to take advantage of the country's
distress to get the whole power of government into
their own hands." And the Assembly proclaimed
on their part that the governor was taking advantage
of the country's distress to reduce the province to
** Egyptian bondage."
Petitions poured in from the miserable frontiers-
men. "How long will those in power, by their
1 Message of the AuemUy to the Govenwr, 29 September, 1756
(written by Franklin), in Colonial Recorde of Pa., vi. 031, 632.
* Writings of Franklin, iii. 447. The Assembly at first tup
pressed this paper, but afterwards printed it.
1765.] DESPERATION OF BORDERERS. 856
quarrels, suffer us to be massacred?"' demanded
William Trent, the Indian trader. " Two and forty
bodies have been buried on Patterson's Creek; and
since they have killed more, and keep on killing."^
Early in October news came that a hundred persons
had been murdered near Fort Cumberland. Repeated
tidings followed of murders on the Susquehanna;
then it was announced that the war-parties had
crossed that stream, and were at their work on the
eastern side. Letter after letter came from the
sufferers, bringing such complaints as this: ^^ We are
in as bad circumstances as ever any poor Christians
were ever in; for the cries of widowers, widows,
fatherless and motherless childen, are enough to pierce
the most hardest of hearts. Likewise it's a very
sorrowful spectacle to see those that escaped with
their lives with not a mouthful to eat, or bed to lie
on, or clothes to cover their nakedness, or keep them
warm, but all they had consumed into ashes. These
deplorable circumstances cry aloud for your Honor's
most wise consideration ; for it is really very shock-
ing for the husband to see the wife of his bosom her
head cut off, and the children's blood drunk like
water, by these bloody and cruel savages."'
Morris was greatly troubled. ^^ The conduct of the
Assembly," he wrote to Shirley, ^ is to me shocking
bey ond parallel. " ^^The inhabitants are abandoning
their plantations, and we are in a dreadful situation,"
1 Trent to JameM Burd, 4 October, 1755.
* Adam Hoop$ to Governor McrrU, 8 November^ 1756.
856 SHIRLEY. —BORDER WAR. [1755
wrote John Harris from the east bank of the Susque-
hanna. On the next day he wrote again: "The
Indians are cutting us off every day, and I had a
certain account of about fifteen hundred Indians,
besides French, being on their march against us and
Virginia, and now close on our borders, their scouts
scalping our families on our frontiers daily." The
report was soon confirmed; and accounts came that
the settlements in the valley called the Great Cove
had been completely destroyed. All this was laid
before the Assembly. They declared the accounts
exaggerated, but confessed that outrages had been
committed ; hinted that the fault was with the pro-
prietaries; and asked the governor to explain why
the Delawares and Shawanoes had become unfriendly.
"If they have suffered wrongs," said the Quakers,
" we are resolved to do all in our power to redress
them, rather than entail upon ourselves and our
posterity the calamities of a cruel Indian war." The
Indian records were searched, and several days spent
in unsuccessful efforts to prove fraud in a late land-
purchase.
Post after post still brought news of slaughter.
The upper part of Cumberland County was laid
waste. Edward Biddle wrote from Reading: "The
drum is beating and bells ringing, and all the people
under arms. This night we expect an attack. The
people exclaim against the Quakers." "We seem to
be given up into the hands of a merciless enemy,"
wrote John Elder from Paxton. And he declares
1755.] GOVERNOR AND ASSEMBLY. 867
iihat more than forty persons have been killed in that
neighborhood, besides numbers carried off. Mean-
while the governor and Assembly went on fencing
with words and exchanging legal subtleties; while,
with every cry of distress that rose from the west,
each hoped that the other would yield.
On the eighth of November the Assembly laid
before Morris for his concurrence a bill for remitting
bills of credit to the amount of sixty thousand
pounds, to be sunk in four years by a tax including
the proprietary estates.^ *^I shall not,'* he replied,
^' enter into a dispute whether the proprietaries ought
to be taxed or not. It is sufficient for me that they
have given me no power in that case; and I cannot
think it consistent either with my duty or safety to
exceed the powers of my commission, much less to
do what that commission expressly prohibits."' He
stretched his authority, however, so far as to propose
a sort of compromise by which the question should
be referred to the King ; but they refused it ; and the
quarrel and the murders went on as before. ^We
have taken," said the Assembly, "every step in our
power, consistent with the just rights of the freemen
of Pennsylvania, for the relief of the poor distressed
inhabitants ; and we have reason to believe that they
themselves would not wish us to go farther. Those
who would give up essential liberty to purchase a
1 Colonial lUcords of Pa., vi. 682.
* Message of the Governor to the Assembljf, 8 November, 1756, ifl
Colonial Records of Pa,, vi. 684.
868 SHIBLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1765.
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty noi
safety.'*^ Then the borderers deserved neither; for,
rather than be butchered, they would have let the
proprietary lands lie untaxed for another year.
"You have in all," said the governor, "proposed to
me five money bills, three of them rejected because
contrary to royal instructions; the other two on
account of the unjust method proposed for taxing the
proprietary estate. If you are disposed to relieve
your country, you have many other ways of granting
money to which I shall have no objection. I shall
put one proof more both of your sincerity and mine
in our professions of regard for the public, by offer-
ing to agree to any bill in the present exigency which
it is consistent with my duty to pass; lest, before our
present disputes can be brought to an issue, we
should neither have a privilege to dispute about, nor
a country to dispute in."^ They stood fast; and
with an obstinacy for which the Quakers were chiefly
answerable, insisted that they would give nothing,
except by a bill taxing real estate, and including that
of the proprietaries.
But now the Assembly began to feel the ground
shaking under their feet. A paper, called a " Repre-
sentation," signed by some of the chief citizens,
was sent to the House, calling for measures of
defence. "You will forgive us, gentlemen," such
^ Mesmge of the Ataembly to the Governor, 11 November, 1766, ia
Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 602. The words are Franklin's.
s Meuage of ike Governor to the Aseembly, 22 November, 1766, Ibid^
TL714.
J755.] A RISING STORM. 859
was its language, ^ if we assume characters somewhat
higher than that of humble suitors praying for the
defence of our lives and properties as a matter of
grace or favor on your side. You will permit us to
make a positive and immediate demand of it.'' ^ This
drove the Quakers mad. Preachers, male and female,
harangued in the streets, denouncing the iniquity of
war. Three of the sect from England, two women
and a man, invited their brethren of the Assembly to
a private house, and fervently exhorted them to stand
firm. Some of the principal Quakers joined in an
address to the House, in which they declared that
any action on its part ^inconsistent with the peace*
able testimony we profess and have borne to the
world appears to us in its consequences to be destruc-
tive of our religious liberties."' And they protested
that they would rather ^^ suffer" than pay taxes for
such ends. Consistency, even in folly, has in it
something respectable; but the Quakers were not
consistent. A few years after, when heated with
party passion and excited by reports of an irruption
of incensed Presbyterian borderers, some of the
pacific sectaries armed for battle ; and the streets of
Philadelphia beheld the curious conjunction of
musket and broad-brimmed hat.^
The mayor, aldermen, and common council next
addressed the Assembly, adjuring them, ^^in the
most solemn manner, before God and in the name of
1 Pennsylvania Archivei, ii. 486. * Ibid., it 487.
* See " Conspiracj of Fontiac/' chap. zxv.
860 SHIRLEY. — BORDER WAR. [1755
all our fellow-citizens/' to provide for defemllng the
lives and property of the people.^ A deputation from
a band of Indians on the Susquehanna, still friendly
to the province, came to ask whether the English
meant to fight or not; for, said their speaker, ^4f
they will not stand by us, we will join the French."
News came that the settlement of Tulpehocken, only
sixty miles distant, had been destroyed; and then
that the Moravian settlement of Gnadenhiitten was
burned, and nearly all its inmates massacred. Colonel
William Moore wrote to the governor that two
thousand men were coming from Chester County
to compel him and the Assembly to defend the
province ; and Conrad Weiser wrote that more were
coming from Berks on the same errand. Old friends
of the Assembly began to cry out against them.
Even the Grermans, hitherto their fast allies, were
roused from their attitude of passivity, and four hun-
dred of them came in procession to demand measures
of war. A band of frontiersmen presently arrived,
bringing in a wagon the bodies of friends and relatives
lately murdered, displaying them at the doors of the
Assembly, cursing the Quakers, and threatening
vengeance.*
Finding some concession necessary, the House at
length passed a militia law, — probably the most
futile ever enacted. It specially exempted the
Quakers, and constrained nobody; but declared it
1 A Remonstrance, etc., in Colonial Records of Pa., vi. 784.
s Mante, 47 ; Entick, i. 877.
1755.] A MOCK MILITIA LAW. 861
lawful, for such as chose, to form themselves into
companies and elect officers by ballot. The company
officers thus elected might, if they saw fit, elect, also
by ballot, colonels, lieutenant-colonels, and majors.
These last might then, in conjunction with the gov-
ernor, frame articles of war; to which, however, no
officer or man was to be subjected unless, after three'
days' consideration, he subscribed them in presence
of a justice of the peace, and declared his willingness
to be bound by them. ^
This mockery could not appease the people; the
Assembly must raise money for men, arms, forts, and
all the detested appliances of war. Defeat absolute
and ignominious seemed hanging over the House,
when an incident occurred which gave them a decent
pretext for retreat. The governor informed them
that he had just received a letter from the proprie-
taries, giving to the province five thousand pounds
sterling to aid in its defence, on condition that the
money should be accepted as a free gift, and not as
their proportion of any tax that was or might be laid
by the Assembly. They had not learned the deplo-
rable state of the country, and had sent the money in
view of the defeat of Braddock and its probable
consequences. The Assembly hereupon yielded,
struck out from the bill before them the clause tax-
1 This remarkable bill, drawn bj Franklin, was meant for
political rather than military effect. It was thought that Morris
wonld refuse to pass it, and could therefore be accused of prevent*
Ing the province from defending itself ; but he avoided the snare
by signing it.
862 SHIRLEY. -. BORDER WAR. [1756.
ing the proprietary estates, and, thus amended, pre-
sented it to the governor, who by his signature made
it a law.^
The House had failed to cany its point. The
result disappointed Franklin, and doubly disappointed
the Quakers. His maxim was: Beat the governor
first, and then beat the enemy; theirs: Beat the gov-
ernor, and let the enemy alone. The measures that
followed, directed in part by Franklin himself, held
the Indians in check, and mitigated the distress of
the western counties; yet there was no safety for
them throughout the two or three years when France
was cheering on her hell-hounds against this tor-
mented frontier.
As in Pennsylvania, so in most of the other colonies
there was conflict between assemblies and governors,
to the unspeakable detriment of the public service.
In New York, though here no obnoxious proprietary
stood between the people and the Crown, the strife
was long and severe. The point at issue was an
important one, — whether the Assembly should con-
tinue their practice of granting yearly supplies to the
governor, or should establish a permanent fund for
the ordinary expenses of government, - thus placing
him beyond their control. The result was a victory
for the Assembly.
Month after month the great continent lay wrapped
in snow. Far along the edge of the western wilder-
ness men kept watch and ward in lonely block-
^ Minute* of Council^ 27 November^ 1755.
1755,1756.] THE EVIDENCE. 868
houses, or scoured the forest on the track of prowling
war-parties. The provincials in garrison at Forts
Edwaixl, William Henry, and Oswego dragged out
the dreary winter; while bands of New England
rangers, mufSed against the piercing cold, caps of
fur on their heads, hatchets in their belts, and guns
in their mittened hands, glided on skates along the
gleaming ice-floor of Lake George, to spy out the
secrets of Ticonderoga, or seize some careless sentry
to tell them tidings of the foe. Thus the petty war
went on; but the big war was frozen into torpor,
ready, like a hibernating bear, to wake again with
the birds, the bees, and the flowers.^
^ On Pennsylvanian dispntes, — A Brief State of the Province oj
Pennsylvania (London, 1755). A Brief View of the Conduct ofPenn-
iylvania (London, 1756). These are pamphlets on the governor't
tide, by WiUiam Smith, D. D., ProYOSt of the College of Pennsyl-
rania. An Answer to an invidious Pamphlet, intituled a Brief State,
etc. (London, 1755). Anonymous. A True and Impartial State of
the Province of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1750).. Anonymous.
The last two works attack the first two with great yehemence. The
True and Impartial State is an able presentation of the case of the
Assembly, omitting, however, essential facts. But the most elabo-
rate work on the subject is the Historical Review of the Constitution
and Government of Pennsylvania, inspired and partly written by
Franklin. It is hotly partisan, and sometimes sophistical and
unfair. Articles on the quarrel will alio be found in the prorincial
newspapers, especially the New York Mercury, and in the Gentle-
man's Magazine for 1755 and 1756. But it is impossible to get any
clear and just view of it without wading through the interminable
documents concerning it in the Colonial Records of Pennsylvania and
the Pennsylvania Archives,
CHAPTER XI.
1712-1756.
MONTCALM.
Wjlr declared. — State of Euhope. — Pompadouh Aim Mabia
Theresa. — Infatuatiok of the French Court. — The Euro-
pean War. — Montcalm to command in America : his earlt
Life; an intractable Pupil; his Marriage; his Family;
HIS Campaigns; Preparation for America; hib Absociatsi.
— ltvis, bourlamaque, bougainville. — embarkation. —
The Voyage. — Arrival. — Vaudreuil. — Forces of Canada.
— Troops of the Line, Colony Troops, Militia, Indians.—
The Military Situation. — Capture of Fort Bull. — Mont-
calm at Ticonderooa.
On the eighteenth of May, 1756, England, after a
year of open hostility, at length declared war. She
had attacked France by land and sea, turned loose
her ships to prey on French commerce, and brought
some three hundred prizes into her ports. It was
the act of a weak government, suppljdng by spasms
of violence what it lacked in considerate resolution.
France, no match for her amphibious enemy in the
game of marine depredation, cried out in horror; and
to emphasize her complaints and signalize a pretended
good faith which her acts had belied, ostentatiously
released a British frigate captured by her cruisers.
She in her turn declared war on the ninth of June:
1756.] FREDERIC OF PRUSSIA. 866
and now began the most terrible conflict of the eigh-
teenth century, — one that convulsed Europe and
shook America, India, the coasts of Africa, and the
islands of the sea.
In Europe the ground was trembling already with
the coming earthquake. Such smothered discords,
such animosities, ambitions, jealousies, possessed the
rival governments; such entanglements of treaties
and alliances, offensive or defensive, open or secret,
— that a blow at one point shook the whole fabric.
Hanover, like the heel of Achilles, was the vulner-
able part for which England was alwajB trembling.
Therefore she made a defensive treaty with Prussia,
by which each party bound itself to aid the other,
should its territory be invaded. England thus sought
a guarantee against France, and Prussia against
Russia. She had need. Her King, Frederic the
Great, had drawn upon himself an avalanche. Three
women — two empresses and a concubine — controlled
the forces of the three great nations, Austria, Russia,
and France; and they all hated him: Elizabeth of
Russia, by reason of a distrust fomented by secret
intrigue and turned into gall by the biting tongue of
Frederic himself, who had gibed at her amours, com-
pared her to Messalina, and called her ^inf6,me eatin
du Nord ; '* Maria Theresa of Austria, because she saw
in him a rebellious vassal of the Holy Roman Empire,
and, above all, because he had robbed her of Silesia;
Madame de Pompadour, because when she sent him
a message of compliment, he answered, ^^Je ne la
866 MONTCALM. [1759.
eonnais paa,^^ forbade his ambassador to visit her, and
in his mocking wit spared neither her nor her royal
lover. Feminine pique, revenge, or vanity had then
at their service the mightiest armaments of Europe.
The recovery of Silesia and the punishment of
Frederic for his audacity in seizing it, possessed the
mind of Maria Theresa with the force of a ruling
passion. ^To these ends she had joined herself in
secret league with Russia; and now at the prompting
of her minister Kaunitz she courted the alliance of
France. It was a reversal of the hereditary policy of
Austria; joining hands with an old and deadly foe,
and spuming England, of late her most trusty ally.
But France could give powerful aid against Frederic;
and hence Maria Theresa, virtuous as she was high-
bom and proud, stooped to make advances to the all-
powerful mistress of Louis XV., wrote her flattering
Jletters, and addressed her, it is said, as ^^Ma cfiire
eousine.^^ Pompadour was delighted, and could
hardly do enough for her imperial friend. She ruled
the King, and could make and unmake ministers at
will. They hastened to do her pleasure, disguising
their subserviexicy by dressing it out in specious
reasons of state* A conference at her summer-house,
called Babiole, ^Bawble," prepared the way for a
treaty which involved the nation in the anti-Prussian
war, and made it the instrument of Austria in the
attempt to humble Frederic, — an attempt which if
successful would give the hereditary enemy of France
a predominance over Germany. France engaged to
1756.] INFATUATION OP FRANCE. 867
aid the cause with twenty-four thousand men, but in
the zeal of her rulers began with a hundred thousand.
Thus the three great Powers stood leagfued against
Prussia. Sweden and Saxony joined them; and the
Empire itself, of which Prussia was a part, took
arms against its obnoxious member.
Never in Europe had power been more centralized,
and never in France had the reins been held by
persons so pitiful, impelled by motives so contemp-
tible. The levity, vanity, and spite of a concubine
became a mighty engine to influence the destinies of
nations. Louis XV., enervated by pleasures and
devoured by ennuij still had his emotions; he shared
Pompadour's detestation of Frederic, and he was
tormented at times by a lively fear of damnation.
But how damn a king who had entered the lists aa
champion of the Church ? England was Protestant^
and so was Prussia ; Austria was supremely Catholio.
Was it not a merit in the eyes of God to join her in
holy war against the poweni of heresy? The King
of the Parc-aux-Cerb would propitiate Heaven by a
new crusade.
a
Henceforth France was to tmii her strength against
her European foes ; and the American wsr, the occa«
sion of the universal outbreak, was to hold in her
eyes a second place. The reasons were several : the
vanity of Pompadour, infatuated by the advances of
the Empress-Queen, and eager to secure her good
graces; the superstition of the King; the anger of
both against Frederic; the desire of D'Argenson,
868 MONTCALM. [1758.
minister of war, that the army^ and not the navy,
should play the foremost part; and the passion of
courtiers and nobles, ignorant of the naval service, to
win laurels in a continental war, — all conspired to
one end. It was the interest of France to turn her
strength against her only dangerous rival; to con-
tinue as she had begun, in building up a naval power
that could face England on the seas and sustain her
own rising colonies in America, India, and the West
Indies; for she too might have multiplied herself,
planted her language and her race over all the globe,
and grown with the growth of her children, had she
not been at the mercy of an effeminate profligate, a
mistress turned procuress, and the favorites to whom
they delegated power.
Still, something must be done for the American
war; at least there must be a new general to replace
Dieskau. None of the court favorites wanted a com-
mand in the backwoods, and the minister of war was
free to choose whom he %ould. His choice fell on
Louis Joseph, Marquis de M ontcalm-Gozon de Sai-it-
V^ran.
Montcalm was bom in the south of France, at the
Chslteau of Candiac, near Ntmes, on the twenty-
ninth of February, 1712. At the age of six he was
placed in the charge of one Dumas, a natural son of
his grandfather. This man, a conscientious pedant,
with many theories of education, ruled his pupil
stifiBy ; and, before the age of fifteen, gave him a good
knowledge of Latin, Greek, and history. Yoking
i766.] s HIS BOYHOOD. 869
Montcalm had a taste for books, continued his read*
ing in such intervals of leisure as camps and garrisons
afforded, and cherished to the end of his life the
ambition of becoming a member of the Academy.
Yet, with all his liking for study, he sometimes
revolted against the sway of the pedagogue who
wrote letters of complaint to his father protesting
against the "judgments of the vulgar, who, contrary
to the experience of ages, say that if children are
well reproved they will correct their faults."
Dumas, however, was not without sense, as is
shown by another letter to the elder Montcalm, in
which he says that the boy had better be ignorant of
Latin and Greek " than know them as he does with-
out knowing how to read, write, and speak French
well." The main difficulty was to make him write a
good hand, — a point in which he signally failed to
the day of his death. So refractory was he at times
that his master despaired. "M. de Montcalm,'*
Dumas informs the father, "has great need of docil-
ity, industry, and willingness to take advice. What
will become of him?" The pupil, aware of these
aspersions, met them by writing to his father his own
ideas of what his aims should be. "First, to be an
honorable man, of good morals, brave, and a Chris-
tian. Secondly, to read in moderation; to know as
much Greek and Latin as most men of the world;
also the four rules of arithmetic, and something of
history, geography, and French and Latin belleS"
Uttres, as well as to have a taste for the arts and
TOL. I. — 24
870 MONTCALM. [1727-1786l
sciences. Thirdly, and above all, to be obedient,
docile, and very submissive to your orders and those
of my dear mother; and also to defer to the advice
of M. Dumas. Fourthly, to fence and ride as well
as my smaU abUities wiU permit."*
If Louis de Montcalm failed to satisfy his pre*
ceptor, he had a brother who made ample amends.
Of this infant prodigy it is related that at six years
he knew Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and had some
acquaintance with arithmetic, French history, geog-
raphy, and heraldry. He was destined for the
Church, but died at the age of seven; his precocious
brain having been urged to fatal activity by the
exertions of Dumas.
Other destinies and a more wholesome growth
were the lot of young Louis. At fifteen he joined
the army as ensign in the regiment of Hainaut. Two
years after, his father bought him a captaincy, and
he was first under fire at the siege of Philipsbourg.
His father died in 1735, and left him heir to a con-
siderable landed estate, much embarrassed by debt.
The Marquis de la Fare, a friend of the family, soon
after sought for him an advantageous marriage to
strengthen his position and increase his prospects of
promotion; and he accordingly espoused Mademoi-
selle Ang^lique Louise Talon du Boulay, — a union
which brought him influential alliances and some
property. Madame de Montcalm bore him ten chil-
dren, of whom only two sons and four daughters
^ Tins passage is giren by Somerrogel from the original letter.
1741-1746.] HIS EARLY CAMPAIGNS. 871
were living in 1752. "May God preserve them all,"
he writes in his autobiography, "and make them
prosper for this world and the next! Perhaps it will
be thought that the number is large for so moderate
a fortune, especially as four of them are girls; but
does God ever abandon his children in their need?
"' Auz petits dee oiseaux il donne la pAture,
£t Ba bont^ s'^tend but toute la nature.' "
He was pious in his soldierly way, and ardently loyal
to Church and King.
His family seat was Candiac ; where, in the inter-
vals of campaigning, he found repose with his wife,
his children, and his mother, who was a woman of
remarkable force of character and who held great
influence over her son. He had a strong attachment
to this home of his childhood; and in after years,
out of the midst of the American wilderness, his
thoughts turned longingly towards it. ^^Qtcand
reverrai'je man cher Candiac I "
In 1741 Montcalm took part in the Bohemian
campaign. He was made colonel of the regiment of
Auxerrois two years later, and passed unharmed
through the severe campaign of 1744. In the next
year he fought in Italy under Mar^chal de Maillebois.
In 1746, at the disastrous action under the walls of
Piacenza, where he twice rallied his regiment, he
received five sabre-cuts, — two of which were in the
head, — and was made prisoner. Returning to
France on parole, he was promoted in the year f ol-
872 MONTCALM. [1765, 1756.
lowing to the rank of brigadier; and being soon after
exchanged, rejoined the army, and was again wounded
by a musket-shot. The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle
now gave him a period of rest.^ At length, being on
a visit to Paris late in the autumn of 1755, the
minister, D'Argenson, hinted to him that he might
be appointed to command the troops in America.
He heard no more of the matter till, after his return
home, he received from D'Argenson a letter dated at
Versailles the twenty-fifth of Januaiy, at midnight,
"Perhaps, Monsieur," it began, "you did not expect
to hear from me again on the subject of the conver-
sation I had with you the day you came to bid me
farewell at Paris. Nevertheless I have not forgotten
for a moment the suggestion I then made you; and
it is with the greatest pleasure that I announce to
you that my views have prevailed. The King has
chosen you to command his troops in North America,
and will honor you on your departure with the rank
of major-general."
The Chevalier de L^vis, afterwards Marshal of
France, was named as his second in command with
the rank of brigadier, and the Chevalier de Bour-
lamaque as his third, with the rank of colonel; but
1 The account of Montcalm up to this time is chiefly from his
unpublished autobiography, preserved by his descendants, and en-
titled AfAnoires pour servir a VHistoire de ma Vie, Somerrogei,
Comme on servait autrefois; Bonnechose, Montcalm et le Canada;
Martin, Le Marquis de Montcalm ; Eloge de Montcalm ; Autre jSloge
de Montcalm ; M Moires snr le Canada, 1740-1700, and other writinrs
in print and manuscript bare also been consulted.
1766.] PREPARES FOR DEPARTURE. 878
what especially pleased him was the appointment of
his eldest son to command a regiment in France.
He set out from Candiac for the court, and occupied
himself on the way with reading Charlevoix. *^I
take great pleasure in it," he writes from Lyons to
his mother; ^^he gives a pleasant account of Quebec.
But be comforted; I shall always be glad to come
home." At Paris he writes again: "Don't expect
any long letter from me before the first of March;
all my business will be done by that time, and I
shall begin to breathe again. I have not yet seen
the Chevalier de Montcalm [his sori]. Last night I
came from Versailles, and am going back to-morrow.
The King gives me twenty-five thousand francs a
year, as he did to M. Dieskau, besides twelve thou-
sand for my equipment, which will cost me above a
thousand crowns more; but I cannot stop for that.
I embrace my dearest and all the family." A few
days later his son joined him. " He is as thin and
delicate as ever, but grows prodigiously tall."
On the second of March he informs his mother:
"My affairs begin to get on. A good part of the
baggage went off the day before yesterday in the
King's wagons; an assistant-cook and two livery-
men yesterday. I have got a good cook. Estfeve,
my secretary, will go on the eighth; Joseph and
D^jean will follow me. To-morrow evening I go to
Versailles till Sunday, and will write from there to
Madame de Montcalm [his vnfe\. I have three aides-
de-camp; one of them, Bougainville, a man of parts,
874 MONTCALM. [1766.
pleasant company. Madame Mazade was happily
delivered on Wednesday; in extremity on Friday
with a malignant fever; Saturday and yesterday,
reports favorable. I go there twice a day, and am
just going now. She has a girl. I embrace you
all." Again, on the fifteenth: "In a few hours I
set out for Brest. Yesterday I presented my son,
with whom I am well pleased, to all the royal family.
I shall have a secretary at Brest, and will write more
at length." On the eighteenth he writes from
Rennes to his wife: "I arrived, dearest, this morn-
ing, and stay here all day. I shall be at Brest on
the twenty-first. Everything will be on board on
the twenty-sixth. My son has been here since yes-
terday for me to coach him and get him a uniform
made, in which he will give thanks for his regiment
at the same time that I take leave in my embroidered
coat. Perhaps I shall leave debts behind. I wait
impatiently for the bills. You have my will ; I wish
you would get it copied, and send it to me before I
sail."
Reaching Brest, the place of embarkation, he
writes to his mother: "I have business on hand still.
My health is good, and the passage will be a time of
rest. I embrace you, and my dearest, and my
daughters. Love to all the family. I shall write
up to the last moment."
No translation can give an idea of the rapid, abrupt,
elliptical style of this familiar correspondence, where
the meaning is sometimes suggested by a single word.
1766.] LtVJS; BOUGAINVILLE. 876
unintelligible to any but those for whoui it is
written.
At the end of March Montcalm, with all his fol-
lowing, was ready to embark; and three ships-of-the-
line, the " Leopard, ". the " H^ros, " and the " Illustre, "
fitted out as transports, were ready to receive the
troops; while the general, with L^vis and Bourla-
maque, were to take passage in the frigates *^ Licome,"
" Sauvage, " and " Sir^ne. " " I Uke the ChevaUer de
L^vis," says Montcalm, "and I think he likes me."
His first aide-de-camp, Bougainville, pleased him, if
possible, still more. This young man, son of a
notary, had begun life as an advocate in the Parlia-
ment of Paris, where his abilities and learning had
already made him conspicuous, when he resigned the
gown for the sword, and became a captain of dra-
goons. He was destined in later life to win laurels
in another career, and to become one of the most
illustrious of French navigators. Montcalm, himself
a scholar, prized his varied talents and accomplish-
ments, and soon learned to feel for him a strong
personal regard.
The troops destined for Canada were only two
battalions, one belonging to the regiment of La
Sarre, and the other to that of Royal RoussiUon.
Louis XV. and Pompadour sent a hundred thousand
men to fight the battles of Austria, and could spare
but twelve hundred to reinforce New France. These
troops marched into Brest at early morning, break-
fasted in the town, and went at once on board the
876 MONTCALM. [17561
transports, ^^with an incredible gayety/' says Bou-
gainville. ** What a nation is ours I Happy he who
commands it, and commands it worthilyl"^ Mont-
calm and he embarked in the ^^Licome," and sailed
on the third of April, leaving L^vis and Bourlamaque
to follow a few days after. ^
The voyage was a rough one. " I have been fortu-
nate," writes Montcalm to his wife, "in not being ill
nor at all incommoded by the heavy gale we had in
Holy Week. It was not so with those who were with
me, especially M. Estdve, my secretary, and Joseph,
who suffered cruelly, — seventeen days without being
able to take anything but water. The season was
very early for such a hard voyage, and it was fortu-
nate that the winter has been so mild. We had very
favorable weather till Monday the twelfth; but since
then till Saturday evening we had rough weather, with
a gale that lasted ninety hours, and put us in real
danger. The forecastle was always under water, and
the waves broke twice over the quarter-deck. From
the twenty-seventh of April to the evening of the
fourth of May we had fogs, great cold, and an amazing
quantity of icebergs. On the thirtieth, when luckily
the fog lifted for a time, we counted sixteen of them.
The day before, one drifted under the bowsprit,
grazed it, and might have crushed us if the deck-
officer had not called out quickly. Luff. After
^ Journal de Bougainville. This is a fragment ; his Joumal proper
begins a few weeks later.
1 LAjit i , 6 AvfH, 1756.
1766.] THE VOYAGE. 877
speaking of our troubles and sufferings, I must tell
you of our pleasures, which were fishing for cod and
eating it. The taste is exquisite. The head, tongue,
and liver are morsels worthy of an epicure. Still, I
would not advise anybody to make the voyage for
their sake. My health is as good as it has been for a
long time. I found it a good plan to eat little and
take no supper; a little tea now and then, and plenty
of lemonade. Neveriiieless I have taken very little
liking for the sea, and think that when I shall be so
happy as to rejoin you I shall end my voyages there.
I don't know when this letter will go. I shall send
it by the first ship that returns to France, and keep
on writing till then. It is pleasant, I know, to hear
particulars about the people one loves, and I thought
that my mother and you, my dearest and most
beloved, would be glad to read all these dull details.
We heard mass on Easter Day. All the week before,
it was impossible, because the ship rolled so that I
could hardly keep my legs. If I had dared, I think
I should have had myself lashed fast. I shall not
soon forget that Holy Week.'*
This letter was written on the eleventh of May, in
the St. Lawrence, where the ship lay at anchor, ten
leagues below Quebec, stopped by ice from proceed-
ing farther. Montcalm made his way to the town
by land, and soon after learned with great satisfac-
tion that the other ships were safe in the river below.
"I see," he writes again, "that I shall have plenty of
work. Our campaign will soon begin. Everything
878 MONTCALM. [ITSe.
is in motion. Don't expect details about our opera-
tions; generals never speak of movements till they
are over. I can only tell you that the winter has
been quiet enough, though the savages have made
great havoc in Pennsylvania and Virginia, and
carried off, according to their custom, men, women,
and children. I beg you will have High Mass said
at Montpellier or Vauvert to thank God for our safe
arrival and ask for good success in future."^
Vaudreuil, the governor-general, was at Montreal,
and Montcalm sent a courier to inform him of his
arrival. He soon went thither in person, and the
two men met for the first time. The new general
was not welcome to Vaudreuil, who had hoped to
command the troops himself, and had represented
to the court that it was needless and inexpedient to
send out a general officer from France.^ The court
had not accepted his views ;^ and hence it was with
more curiosity than satisfaction that he greeted the
colleague who had been assigned him. He saw
before him a man of small stature, with a lively
countenance, a keen eye, and, in moments of anima-
tion, rapid, vehement utterance, and nervous gesticu-
lation. Montcalm, we may suppose, regarded the
governor with no less attention. Pierre Frangois
Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil, was son of Philippe
de Vaudreuil, who had governed Canada early in
1 These extracts are translated from copies of the original letters,
in possession of the present Marquis de Montcalm.
* Vaudreuil au MinUtre, 30 Octchre, 1766.
* Ordres du Roy et D^ches des Ministres, FArier, 1766
1756.] VAUDREUIL. 879
the century; and he himself had been governor of
Louisiana. He had not the force of character which
his position demanded, lacked decision in times of
crisis; and though tenacious of authority, was more
jealous in asserting than self-reliant in exercising it.
One of his traits was a sensitive egotism, which made
him forward to proclaim his own part in every suc-
cess, and to throw on others the burden of every
failure. He was facile by nature, and capable of
being led by such as had skill and temper for the
task. But the impetuous Montcalm was not of their
number; and the fact that he was bom in France
would in itself have thrown obstacles in his way to
the good graces of the governor. Vaudreuil, Cana-
dian by birth, loved the colony and its people, and
distrusted Old France and all that came out of it.
He had been bred, moreover, to the naval service;
and, like other Canadian governors, his o£Qcial cor-
respondence was with the minister of marine, while
that of Montcalm was with the minister of war.
Even had Nature made him less suspicious, his rela-
tions with the general would have been critical.
Montcalm commanded the regulars from France,
whose very presence was in the eyes of Vaudreuil
an evil, though a necessary one. Their chief was,
it is true, subordinate to him in virtue of his o£Qce
of governor; ^ yet it was clear that for the conduct of
1 Le Minittre a Vaudreuil, 15 Mars, 1756. Cammiinon du Marqun
de Montcalm, M€movn du Roy pour servir d*InMtructUm au Marquis ds
Menicaim,
880 MONTCALM. [175a
the war the trust of the govemment was mainly in
Montcalm; and the minister of war had even sug-
gested that he should have the immediate command,
not only of the troops from France, but of the colony
regulars and the militia. An order of the King to
this effect was sent to Yaudreuil, with instructions
to communicate it to Montcalm or withhold it, as he
should think best.^ He lost no time in replying that
the general *^ ought to concern himself with nothing
but the command of the troops from France;" and
he returned the order to the minister who sent it.*
The governor and the general represented the two
parties which were soon to divide Canada, — those of
New France and of Old.
A like antagonism was seen in the forces com-
manded by the two chiefs. These were of three
kinds, — the troupes de terre^ troops of the line, or
regulars from France; the troupes de la marine^ or
colony regulars; and lastly the militia. The first
consisted of the four battalions that had come over
with Dieskau and the two that had come with Mont-
calm, comprising in all a little less than three thou-
sand men.' Besides these, the battalions of Artois
^ Ordres du Roy et D^pSches de» Ministres, 1766. Le Mlnittre h
Vaudreuil, 15 Mars, 1766.
^ Vaudreuil au MinUtrt, 16 Jtitn, 1756. " Qu'il ne ae m61e que dn
commandement des troupes de terre."
* Of about twelve hundred who came with Montcalm, nearly
three hundred were now in hospital. The four battalions that came
with Dieskau are reported at the end of May to have sixteen hun-
dred and fifty-three effective men. ]^tat de la Situation actuelle dei
Bataillons, appended to Montcalm's despatch of 12 June. Another
1766.] TROOPS IN CANADA. 881
and Boiugogne, to the number of eleven hundred
men, were in garrison at Louisbourg. All these
troops wore a white uniform, faced with blue, red,
yellow, or violet,^ a black three-cornered hat, and
gaiters, generally black, from the foot to the knee.
The subaltern officers in the French service were
very numerous, and were drawn chiefly from the class
of lesser nobles, A well-informed French writer
calls them ^*a generation of petits-maitres^ dissolute,
frivolous, heedless, light- witted ; but brave always,
and ready to die with their soldiers, though not to
suffer with them."* In fact, the course of the war
was to show plainly that in Europe the regiments of
France were no longer what they had once been. It
was not so with those who fought in America.
Here, for enduring gallantry, officers and men alike
deserve nothing but praise.
The troupes de la marine had for a long time
formed the permanent militaiy establishment of
Canada. Though attached to the naval department,
they served on land, and were employed as a police
within the limits of the colony, or as garrisons of the
outlying forts, where their officers busied themselves
more with fur-trading than with their military duties.
document. Detail de ce qui s'ext pa8s€ en Canada, Juin, 1765, jusqua
Juin, 1766, sets the united effective strength of the battalions in
Canada at twenty-six hundred and seven ty-^even, which was in*
creased by recruits which arrived from France about midsummer.
^ Except, perhaps, the battalion of B<^am, which formerly wore,
and possibly wore still, a uniform of light blue.
^ Susane, Ancienne In/anterie Fran^ise. In the atlas of this
Work are colored plates of the uniforms of aU the regiments of foot
882 MONTCALM. [1760.
Thus they had become ill-disciplined and inefficient*
till the hard hand of Duquesne restored them to
order. They originally consisted of twenty-eight
independent companies, increased in 1750 to thirty
companies, at first of fifty, and afterwards of sixty-
five men each, forming a total of nineteen hundred
and fifty rank and file. In March, 1757, ten more
companies were added. Their uniform was not
unlike that of the troops attached to the War Depart-
ment, being white, with black facings. They were
enlisted for the most part in France ; but when their
term of service expired, and even before, in time of
peace, they were encouraged to become settlers in
the colony, as was also the case with their officerR,
of whom a great part were of European birth. Thus
the relations of the troupes de la marine with the
colony were close; and they formed a sort of con-
necting link between the troops of the line and the
native militia.^ Besides these colony regulars, there
was a company of colonial artillery, consisting this
year of seventy men, and replaced in 1757 by two
companies of fifty men each.
All the effective male population of Canada, from
fifteen years to sixty, was enrolled in the miHtjft,
^ On the troupes de la marine, — Mimoire pour $ervir d* Instruction h,
MM. Jonquihe et Bigot, 80 Avril, 1749. Ordres du Roy et D^ches
dei Ministres, 1760. Ibid., 1766. Ibid., 1767. Instruction pour Vau-
dreuil, 22 Mars, 1766. Ordonnance pour f Augmentation de Soldats dans
les Compagnies de Canada, 14 Mars, 1766. Duquesne au Ministrt, 26
OrtoAre, 1763. /6irf., 30 Octobre, 1763. Ibid,, 2» Fourier, 17 U. Du-
quesne h Marin, 27 Ao4U, 1768. Atlas de Susans,
1756.] CANADIAN MILITIA. 888
and called into service at the will of the governor.
They received arms, clothing, equipment, and rations
from the King, but no pay; and instead of tents they
made themselves huts of bark or branches. The best
of them were drawn from the upper parts of the
colony, where habits of bush-ranging were still in full
activity. Their fighting qualities were much like
those of the Indians, whom they rivaUed in endur-
ance and in the arts of forest war. As bush-fighters
they had few equals ; they fought well behind earth-
works, and were good at a surprise or sudden dash ;
but for regular battle on the open field they were of
small account, being disorderly, and apt to break and
take to cover at the moment of crisis. They had no
idea of the great operations of war. At first they
despised the regulars for their ignorance of wood-
craft, and thought themselves able to defend the
colony alone; while the regulars regarded them in
turn with a contempt no less unjust. They were
excessively given to gasconade, and every true Cana-
dian boasted himself a match for three Englishmen
at least. In 1750 the militia of all ranks counted
about thirteen thousand; and eight years later the
number had increased to about fifteen thousand.^
Until the last two years of the war, those employed
in actual warfare were but few. Even in the critical
^ R^tcapituiation des MUicen du Gauvememmit de Canada, 1760.
Denombrement dei AfUices, 1768, 1750. On the militia, lee also Bon-
gainTille in Margry, Relatioru et M€moi*^^ inidiu, 00, and N. Y. Col
DocM,, z. 080.
884 MONTCALM. [1758.
year 1758 only about eleven hundred were called to
arms, except for two or three weeks in summer;^
though about four thousand were employed in trans-
porting troops and supplies, for which service they
received pay.
To the white fighting force of the colony are to be
added the red men. The most trusty of them were
the Mission Indians, living within or near the settled
limits of Canada, chiefly the Hurons of Lorette, the
Abenakis of St. Francis and Batiscan, the Iroquois
of Caughnawaga, and La Presentation, and the
Iroquois and Algonquins at the Two Mountains on
the Ottawa. Besides these, all the warriors of the
West and North, from Lake Superior to the Ohio,
and from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, were
now at the beck of France. As to the Iroquois or
Five Nations who still remained in their ancient seats
within the present limits of New York, their power
and pride had greatly fallen; and crowded as they
were between the French and the English, they were
in a state of vacillation, some leaning to one side,
some to the other, and some to each in turn. As a
whole, the best that France could expect from them
was neutrality.
Montcalm at Montreal had more visits than he
liked from his red allies. " They are vUaina messieurs, "
he informs his mother, " even when fresh from their
toilet, at which they pass their lives. You would
not believe it, but the men always carry to war, along
^ Montcalm au Minittre, 1 Septembre, 1758.
1766.] HIS IMPRESSIONS OF CANADA. 886
with their tomahawk and gun, a mirror to daub theiz
faces with varioufl colors, and arrange feathers on
their heads and rings in their ears and noses. They
think it a great beauty to cut the rim of the ear and
stretch it till it reaches the shoulder. Often they
wear a laced coat, with no shirt at all. You would
take them for so many masqueraders or devils. One
needs the patience of an angel to get on with them.
Ever since I have been here, I have had nothing but
visits, harangues, and deputations of these gentry.
The Iroquois ladies, who always take part in their
government, came also, and did me the honor to
bring me belts of wampum, which will obUge me to
go to their village and sing the war-song. They are
only a little way oflE. Yesterday we had eighty-three
warriors here, who have gone out to fight. They
make war with astounding cruelty, sparing neither
men, women, nor children, and take off your scalp
very neatly, — an operation which generally kills
you.
*^£veiything is horribly dear in this country; and
I shall find it hard to make the two ends of the year
meet, with the twenty-five thousand francs the King
gives me. The Chevalier de L^vis did not join me
till yesterday. His health is excellent. In a few
days I shall send him to one camp, and M. de Bour-
lamaque to another; for we have three of them: one
at Carillon, eighty leagues from here, towards the
place where M. de Dieskau had his affair last year;
another at Frontenac, sixty leagues; and the third
TOL. I. — 25
886 MOXTCALM. [175d.
at Niagara, a hundred and forty leagues. I don't
know when or whither I shall go myself; that
depends on the movements of the enemy. It seems
to me that things move slowly in this new world;
and I shall have to moderate my activity accordingly.
Nothing but the King's service and the wish to make
a career for my son could prevent me from thinking
too much of my expatriation, my distance from you,
and the dull existence here, which would be duller
still if I did not manage to keep some little of my
natural gayety."
The miUtary situation was somewhat perplexing.
Iroquois spies had brought reports of great prepara-
tions on the part of the English. As neither party
dared offend these wavering tribes, tiieir warriors
could pass with impunity from one to the other, and
were paid by each for bringing information, not
always trustworthy. They declared that the English
were gathering in force to renew the attempt made
by Johnson the year before against Crown Point and
Ticonderoga, as well as that made by Shirley against
Forts Frontenac and Niagara. Vaudreuil had spared
no effort to meet the double danger. Lotbinidre, a
Canadian engineer, had been busied during tiie
winter in fortifying Ticonderoga, while Pouchot, a
captain in the battalion of B^am, had rebuilt
Niagara, and two French engineers were at work in
strengthening the defences of Frontenac. The gov*
emor even hoped to take the offensive, anticipate the
movements of the English, capture Oswego, and
1756.] FORT BULL. 88T
obtain the complete command of Lake Ontario.
Early in the spring a blow had been struck which
materially aided these schemes.
The English had built two small forts to guard
the Great Carrying Place on the route to Oswego.
One of these, Fort Williams, was on the Mohawk;
the other, Fort Bull, a mere collection of storehouses
surrounded by a palisade, was four miles distant, on
the bank of Wood Creek. Here a great quantity of
stores and ammunition had imprudently been col-
lected against the opening campaign. In February
Vaudreuil sent Ldry, a colony officer, with three
hundred and sixty-two picked men, soldiers, Cana-
dians, and Indians, to seize these two posts. Towards
the end of March, after extreme hardship, they
reached the road that connected them, and at half-
past five in the morning captured twelve men going
with wagons to Fort Bull. Learning from them the
weakness of that place, they dashed forward to sur-
prise it. The thirty provincials of Shirley's regiment
who formed the garrison had barely time to shut the
gate, while the assailants fired on them through the
loopholes, of which they got possession in the tumult.
L^ry called on the defenders to yield; but they
refused, and pelted the French for an hour with
bullets and hand-grenades. The gate was at last
beat down with axes, and they were summoned
again; but again refused, and fired hotly through
the opening. The French rushed in, shouting Vive
le TOly and a frightful struggle followed. All the
888 MONTCALM. [175d.
garrison were killed, except two or three who hid
themselves till the slaughter was over; the fort was
set on fire and blown to atoms by the explosion of
the magazines ; and L^ry then withdrew, not ventur-
ing to attack Fort Williams. Johnson, warned by
Indians of the approach of the French, had pushed
up the Mohawk with reinforcements; but came too
late.i
Vaudreuil, who always exaggerates any success in
which he has had part, says that besides bombs,
bullets, cannon-balls, and ofcher munitions, forty-five
thousand pounds of gimpowder were destroyed on
this occasion. It is certain that damage enough was
done to retard English operations in the direction of
Oswego sufiiciently to give the French time for
securing all their posts on Lake Ontario. Before
the end of June this was in good measure done. The
battalion of B^am lay encamped before the now
strong fort of Niagara, and the battalions of Guienne
and La Sarre, with a body of Canadians, guarded
Frontenac against attack. Those of La Reine and
Languedoc had been sent to Ticonderoga, while the
governor, with Montcalm and L^vis, still remained
at Montreal watching the turn of events.^ Hither,
^ Bigot au Ministre, 12 Auril, 1766. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 1 Juin,
1766. Ibid., 8 Jnin, 1766. Journal de ee qui s'est pats€ en Canada
depuiM U Mois (TOctobre, 1766, jugq^au Mois de Juin, 1766. Shirley to
Fox, 7 May, 1766. Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated.
Information of Captain John ViearSf of the Fiftieth (Shirley's) Regiment.
Eastburn, Faithful Narrative, Entick, i. 471. The French accounts
place the number of English at sixty or eighty.
^ Correspondance de Montcalm, Vaudreuil, et L^vis,
1756.] MONTREUIL^S OPINION OF MONTCALM. 389
too, came the intendant Francois Bigot, the most
accomplished knave in Canada, yet indispensable for
his vigor and executive skill; Bougainville, who had
disarmed the jealousy of Vaudreuil, and now stood
high in his good graces; and the adjutant-general,
Montreuil, clearly a vain and pragmatic personage,
who, having come to Canada with Dieskau the year
before, thought it behooved him to give the general
the advantage of his experience. ^^I like M. de
Montcalm very much," he writes to the minister,
^^ and will do the impossible to deserve his confidence.
I have spoken to him in the same terms as to M.
Dieskau; thus: * Trust only the French regulars for
an expedition, but use the Canadians and Indians to
harass the enemy. Don't expose yourself; send me
to carry your orders to points of danger.' The
colony officers do not like those from France. The
Canadians are independent, spiteful, lying, boastful ;
very good for skirmishing, very brave behind a tree,
and very timid when not under cover. I think both
sides will stand on the defensive. It does not seem
to me that M. de Montcalm means to attack the
enemy; and I think he is right. In this country a
thousand men could stop three thousand."^
**M. de Vaudreuil overwhelms me with civilities,"
Montcalm writes to the minister of war. " I think
that he is pleased with my conduct towards him, and
that it persuades him there are general officers in
France who can act under his orders without preju-
^ Montreuil au MiniMtre, 12 Juin, 1756. The original is in cipher.
890 MONTCALM. [1756.
dice or ill-humor/'* "I am on good terms with
him," he says again; ^^but not in his confidence,
which he never gives to anybody from France. His
intentions are good, but he is slow and irresolute." '
Indians presently brought word that ten thousand
English were coming to attack Ticonderoga. A
reinforcement of colony reg^ulars was at once de-
spatched to join the two battalions already there; a
third battalion. Royal Roussillon, was sent after
them. The militia were called out and ordered to
follow with all speed, while both Montcalm and
L^vis hastened to the supposed scene of danger.^
They embarked in canoes on the Richelieu, coasted
the shore of Lake Champlain, passed Fort Frederic
or Crown Point, where all was activity and bustle,
and reached Ticonderoga at the end of June. They
found the fort, on which Lotbinidre had been at work
all winter, advanced towards completion. It stood
on the crown of the promontory, and was a square
with four bastions, a ditch, blown in some parts out
of the solid rock, bomb-proofs, barracks of stone, and
a system of exterior defences as yet only begun.
The rampart consisted of two parallel walls ten feet
apart, built of the trunks of trees, and held together
by transverse logs dovetailed at both ends, the space
^ Montcalm au Ministre, 12 .711111, 1756.
' Ibid., 19 Juin, 1756. " Je suis bien avec luy, sans sa conflance,
qu'il ne donne jamais k personne de la France." Erroneouslj
rendered in N. Y. Col. Docs., x. 421.
* Montccdm au Ministre, 26 Juin, 1756. Detail de ce qui s*e$t pass^
Oetobrt, 175&-Jttm, 1756.
1756.] LtVJS. 891
between being filled with earth and gravel well
packed.^ Such was the first Fort Ticonderoga, or
Carillon, — a structure quite distinct from the later
fort of which the ruins still stand on the same spot.
The forest had been hewn away for some distance
around, and the tents of the regulars and huts of the
Canadians had taken its place; innumerable bark
canoes lay along the strand; and gangs of men toiled
at the unfinished works.
Ticonderoga was now the most advanced position
of the French, and Crown Point, which had before
held that perilous honor, was in the second line.
L^vis, to whom had been assigned the permanent
command of this post of danger, set out on foot to
explore the neighboring woods and mountains, and
slept out several nights before he reappeared at the
camp. "I do not think," says Montcalm, ^^that
many high officers in Europe would have occasion to
take such tramps as this. I cannot speak too well
of him. Without being a man of brilliant parts, he
has good experience, good sense, and a quick eye;
and, though I had served with him before, I never
should have thought that he had such promptness
and efficiency. He has turned his campaigns to
good account." ^ L^vis writes of his chief with equal
warmth. ^ I do not know if the Marquis de Mont-
calm is pleased with me, but I am sure that I am
^ Lotbinth-e au Minittre, 31 Oetobre, 1756. Montcalm am MmitU^
20 JuiUet, 1766.
< Montcalm au Mmiitre, 20 JmlUt, 1766.
892 MONTCALM. [175(1
very much so with him, and shall always be charmed
to serve under his orders. It is not for me, Mon-
seigneur, to speak to you of his merit and his talents.
You know him better than anybody else ; but I may
have the honor of assuring you that he has pleased
everybody in this colony, and manages affairs with
the Indians extremely well."^
The danger from the English proved to be still
remote, and there was ample leisure in the camp.
Duchat, a young captain in the battalion of Languedoc,
used it in writing to his father a long account of
what he saw about him, — the forests full of game;
the ducks, geese, and partridges; the prodigious
flocks of wild pigeons that darkened the air; the
beais, the beavers; and above all the Indians, their
canoes, dress, ball-play, and dances. "We are
making here," says the military prophet, "a place
that history will not forget. The English colonies
have ten times more people than ours; but these
wretches have not the least knowledge of war; and
if they go out to fight, they must abandon wives,
children, and all that they possess. Not a week
passes but the French send them a band of hair--
dressers^ whom they would be very glad to dispense
with. It is incredible what a quantity of scalps they
bring us. In Virginia they have committed unheard-
of cruelties, carried off families, burned a great many
houses, and killed an infinity of people. These
miserable English are in the extremity of distress,
1 LiciB au MiniMtre, 17 JuOUt, 1760.
1756.] DUCHAT'S RELATION. 393
and repent too late the unjust war they began against
us. It is a pleasure to make war in Canada. One
is troubled neither witl^ horses nor baggage; the
King provides everything. But it must be confessed
that if it costs no money, one pays for it in another
way, by seeing nothing but pease and bacon on the
mess-table. Luckily the lakes are full of fish, and
both officers and soldiers have to turn fishermen." ^
Meanwhile, at the head of Lake George, the raw
bands of ever-active New England were mustering
for the fray.
^ Relation de M, Duchat, Capitaine au Raiment de Langwdoc, icriU
on Camp de CariUon, 16 JuiUet, 1756.
CHAPTER Xn.
1756.
CM5WEG0.
Thb Nbw Campaign. — Untimelt Change of Commandebs. —
Eclipse of Shirlet. — Earl of Loudon. — Muster of Pro-
vincials. — New England Levies. — Winslow at Lake
George. — Johnson and the Five Nations. — Bradstreet
AND HIS Boatmen. — Fight on the Onondaga. — Pestilence
at Oswego. — Loudon and the Provincials. — New England
Camps. — Armt Chaplains. — A Sudden Blow. — Montcalm
ATTACKS Oswego: its Fall.
When, at the end of the last year, Shirley returned
from his bootless Oswego campaign, he called a
council of war at New York and laid before it his
scheme for the next summer's operations. It was a
comprehensive one: to master Lake Ontario by an
overpowering naval force and seize the French forts
upon it, Niagara, Frontenac, and Toronto; attack
Ticonderoga and Crown Point on the one hand, and
Fort Duquesne on the other, and at the same time
perplex and divide the enemy by an inroad down the
Chaudidre upon the settlements about Quebec.^ The
^ Minutes of Council of War held at New Yorkt 12 and 13 December,
1755. Shirley to Robinson, 10 December, 1755. The Conduct of Majors
General Shirley briefly stated. Review of Military Operations in North
America,
1766.] THE NEW CAMPAIGN. 895
council approved the scheme; but to execute it the
provinces must raise at least sixteen thousand men.
This they refused to do. Pennsylvania and Virginia
would take no active part, and were content with
defending themselves. The attack on Fort Duquesne
was therefore abandoned, as was also the diversion
towards Quebec. The New England colonies were
discouraged by Johnson's failure to take Crown
Point, doubtful of the military abilities of Shirley,
and embarrassed by the debts of the last campaign ;
but when they learned that Parliament would grant
a sum of money in partial compensation for their
former sacrifices,^ they plunged into new debts with-
out hesitation, and raised more men than the general
had asked; though, with their usual jealousy, they
provided that their soldiers should be employed for
no other purpose than the attack on Ticonderoga and
Crown Point. Shirley chose John Winslow to com-
mand them, and gave him a commission to that
effect; while he, to clinch his authority, asked and
obtained supplementary commissions from every gov-
ernment that gave men to the expedition.^ For the
movement against the forts of Lake Ontario, which
Shirley meant to command in person, he had the
1 Lords of Trade to Lords of the Treaiwry, 12 February, 1766. Fox
to American Governors, 13 March, 1766. Shirley to Phipps, 16 June,
1766. The sum was £116,000, divided in proportion to the expense
incurred by the several colonies; Massachusetts having £64,000,
Connecticut £26,000, and New York £16,000, the rest being given to
New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and New Jersey.
3 Letter and Order Books of General Winslow, 1766.
896 OSWEGO. [1766.
remains of his own and Pepperrell's regiments, the
two shattered battalions brought over by Braddock,
the ^^ Jersey Blues," four provincial companies from
North Carolina, and the four King's companies of
New York. His first care was to recruit their ranks
and raise them to their full complement; which,
when effected, would bring them up to the insuffi-
cient strength of about forty-four hundred men.
While he was struggling with contradictions and
cross purposes, a withering blow fell upon him; he
learned that he was superseded in the command.
The cabal formed against him, with Delancey at its
head, had won over Sir Charles Hardy, the new
governor of New York, and had painted Shirley's
conduct in such colors that the ministry removed
him. It was essential for the campaign that a suc-
cessor should be sent at once, to form plans on the
spot and make preparations accordingly. The min-
istry were in no such haste. It was presently
announced that Colonel Daniel Webb would be sent
to America, followed by General James Abercrombie ;
who was to be followed in turn by the Earl of
Loudon, the destined commander-in chief. Shirley
was to resign his command to Webb, Webb to
Abercrombie, and Abercrombie to Loudon.^ It
chanced that the two former arrived in June at about
1 Fox to Shirley, 13 March, 1756. Ibid., 31 March, 1756. Order to
Colonel Webb, 31 March, 1756. Order to Major-General Abercrombie,!
AprU, 1756. Halifax to ShirUg, 1 April, 1756. ShirUy to Fox, IS
June, 1756.
1756.] ECLIPSE OF SHIRLEY. 897
the same time, while the earl came in July; and mean-
while it devolved on Shirley to make ready for them.
Unable to divine what their plans would be, he pre-
pared the campaign in accordance with his own.
His star, so bright a twelvemonth before, was now
misembly dimmed. In both his public and private
life he was the butt of adversity. He had lost two
promising sons ; he had made a mortifying failure as
a soldier; and triumphant enemies were rejoicing in
his fall. It is to the credit of his firmness and his
zeal in the cause that he set himself to his task with
as much vigor as if he, and not others, were to gather
the fruits. His chief care was for his favorite enter-
prise in the direction of Lake Ontario. Making
Albany his headquarters, he rebuilt the fort at the
Great Carrying Place destroyed in March by the
French, sent troops to guard the perilous route to
Oswego, and gathered provisions and stores at tha
posts along the way.
Meanwhile the New England men, strengthened
by the levies of New York, were mustering at Albany
for the attack of Crown Point At the end of May
they moved a short distance up the Hudson, and
encamped at a place called Half-Moon, where the
navigation was stopped by rapids. Here and at the
posts above were gathered something more than five
thousand men, as raw and untrained as those led by
Johnson in the summer before.^ The four New Eng-
land colonies were much alike in their way of raising
1 LeUer and Order Books of WimUno, 1766.
898 OSWEGO. [175«.
and equipping men, and the example of Massachu-
setts may serve for them all. The Assembly or
"General Court" voted the required number, and
chose a committee of war authorized to impress pro*
visions, munitions, stores, clothing, tools, and othei
necessaries, for which &ir prices were to be paid
within six months. The governor issued a proclama-
tion calling for volunteers. If the full number did
not appear within the time named, the colonels of
militia were ordered to muster their regiments, and
immediately draft out of them men enough to meet
the need. A bounty of six dollars was offered this
year to stimulate enlistment, and the pay of a private
soldier was fixed at one pound six shillings a month,
Massachusetts currency. If he brought a gun, he
had an additional bounty of two dollars. A powder^
horn, bullet-pouch, blanket, knapsack, and "wooden
bottle," or canteen, were supplied by the province;
and if he brought no gun of his own, a musket was
given him, for which, as for the other articles, he
was to account at the end of the campaign. In the
next year it was announced that the soldier should
receive, besides his pay, "a coat and soldier's hat."
The coat was of coarse blue cloth, to which breeches
of red or blue were afterwards added. Along with
his rations, he was promised a gill of rum each day,
a privilege of which he was extremely jealous, deeply
resenting every abridgment of it. He was enlisted
for the campaign, and could not be required to serve
above a year at farthest.
17W.] NEW ENGLAND LEVIES. 899
The complement of a regimeot was five hundred,
divided into companies of fifty; and as the men and
officers of each were drawn from the same neighbor-
hood, they generally knew each other. The officers,
though nominally appointed by the Assembly, were
for the most part the virtual choice of the soldiers
themselves, from whom they were often indistinguish-
able in character and social standing. Hence disci-
pline was weak. The pay — or, as it was called, the
wages — of a colonel was twelve pounds sixteen
shillings, Massachusetts currency, a month; that of a
captain, five pounds eight shillings, — an advance on
the pay of the last year; and that of a chaplain, six
pounds eight shillings.^ Penalties were enacted
against ^irreligion, immorality, drunkenness, de-
bauchery, and profaneness." The ordinary punish-
ments were the wooden horse, irons, or, in bad cases,
flogging.
Much difficulty arose from the different rules
adopted by the various colonies for the regulation of
their soldiers. Nor was this the only source of
trouble. Besides its war committee, the Assembly
of each of the four New England colonies chose
another committee ^^for clothing, arming, paying,
victualling, and transporting " its troops. They were
to go to the scene of operations, hire wagons, oxen,
and horses, build boats and vessels, and charge them-
selves with the conveyance of all supplies belonging
to their respective governments. They were to keep
1 VoU of General Court, 20 February, 1750.
400 OSWEGO. [1768.
in correspondence with the committee of war at home,
to whom they were responsible ; and the officer com-
manding the contingent of their colony was required
to furnish them with guards and escorts. Thus four
independent committees were engaged in the work of
transportation at the same time, over the same roads,
for the same object. Each colony chose to keep the
control of its property in its own hands. The incon-
veniences were obvious. **I wish to God," wrote
Lord Loudon to Winslow, "you could persuade your
people to go all one way." The committees them-
selves did not always find their task agreeable. One
of their number, John Ashley, of Massachusetts,
writes in dudgeon to Governor Phips: "Sir, I am
apt to think that things have been misrepresented to
your Honor, or else I am certain I should not suffer
in my character, and be styled a damned rascal, and
ought to be put in irons, etc., when I am certain I
have exerted myself to the utmost of my ability to
expedite the business assigned me by the General
Court." At length, late in the autumn, Loudon
persuaded the colonies to forego this troublesome sort
of independence, and turn over their stores to the
commissary-general, receipts being duly given. *
^ The above particulars are gathered from the yoluminous pajiert
in the State House at Boston, Archives, Military, vols. Lzzy., IzxtI.
These contain the military acts of the General Court, proclamations,
reports of committees, and other papers relating to military affairs
in 1766 and 1766. The Letter and Order Books of Winshw, in the
Library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, have supplied
much concurrent matter. See also Colonial Records of R. I,, r,, and
Provincial Papers of N» H,, ri.
1766.] INDIAN ATTACKS. 401
From Winslow's headquarters at Half*Moon a
road led along the banks of the Hudson to Stillwater,
whence there was water carriage to Saratoga. Here
stores were again placed in wagons and carried several
miles to Upper Falls ; thence by boat to Fort Edward ;
and thence, fourteen miles across country, to Fort
William Henry at Lake George, where the army was
to embark for Ticonderoga. Each of the points of
transit below Fort Edward was guarded by a stockade
and two or more companies of provincials. They
were much pestered by Indians, who now and then
scalped a straggler, and escaped with their usual
nimbleness. From time to time strong bands of
Canadians and Indians approached by way of South
Bay or Wood Creek, and threatened more serious
mischief. It is surprising that some of the trains
were not cut off, for the escorts were often reckless
and disorderly to the last degree. Sometimes the
invaders showed great audacity. Early in June
Colonel Fitch at Albany scrawls a hasty note to
Winslow: "Friday, 11 o'clock: Sir, about half an
hour since, a party of near fifty French and Indians
had the impudence to come down to the river oppo-
site to this city and captivate two men;" and
Winslow replies with equal quaintness : " We daily
discover the Indians about us; but not yet have been
so happy as to obtain any of them." ^
^ Vaadreuil, in his despatch of 12 August, giret particulars of
these raids, with an account of the scalps taken on each occasion.
He thought the results disappointing.
VOL. 1.-26
402 OSWEGO. [1756.
Colonel Jonathan Baglej commanded at Fort
William Henry, where gangs of men were busied
under his eye in building three sloops and making
several hundred whaleboats to carry t^e army to
Ticonderoga. The season was advancing fast, and
Winslow urged him to hasten on the work ; to which
the humorous Bagley answered: ^^ Shall leave no
stone unturned; every wheel shall go that rum and
human flesh can move."? A fortnight after he
reports : ^^ I must really confess I have almost wore
the men out, poor dogs. Pray where are the com-
mittee, or what are they about? " He sent scouts to
watch the enemy, with results not quite satisfactory.
"There is a vast deal of news here; every party
brings abundance, but all different." Again, a little
later: "I constantly keep out small scouting parties
to the eastward and westward of the lake, and make
no discovery but the tracks of smaU parties who aie
plaguing us constantly; but what vexes me most, we
can't catch one of the sons of . I have sent
out skulking parties some distance from the sentries
in the night, to lie still in the bushes to intercept
them; but the flies are so pltoty, our people can't
bear them."' Colonel David Wooster, at Fort
Edward, was no more fortunate in his attempts to
take satisfaction on his midnight visitors, and reports
that he has not thus far been able "to give those
villains a dressing."^ The English, however, were
1 BagUy to Winslow, 2 July, 1766. * Ibid., 15 July, 1760.
* Wooster to Winslow, 2 June, 1766.
1766.] JOHNSON AND THE FIVE NATIONS. 408
fast learning the art of forest war, and the partisan
chief, Captain Robert Rogers, began already to be
famous. On the seventeenth of June he and his
band lay hidden in the bushes within the outposts of
Ticonderoga, and made a close survey of t^e fort and
surrounding camps. ^ His report was not cheering.
Winslow's so-called army had now grown to nearly
seven thousand men; and these, it was plain, were
not too many to drive the French from t^eir
stronghold.
While Winslow pursued his preparations, tried to
settle disputes of rank among the colonels of the
several colonies, and strove to bring order out of the
little chaos of his command. Sir WUliam Johnson
was engaged in a work for which he was admirably
fitted. This was the attaching of the Five Nations
to the English interest. Along with his patent of
baronetcy, which reached him about this time, he
received, direct from the Crown, the commission of
" Colonel, Agent, and Sole Superintendent of the Six
Nations and other Northern Tribes."' Henceforth
he was independent of governors and generals, and
responsible to the court alone. His task was a diffi-
cult one. The Five Nations would fain have re-
mained neutral, and let the European rivals fight it
out; but, on account of their local position, they
could not. The exactions and lies of the Albany
1 Report of Rogers, 19 June, 1766. Much abridged in his published
JoumaU.
* Fox to Johnson, 13 March, 1766. Papers of Sir WUliam Johnson.
404 OSWEGO. [1766.
traders, the frauds of land-speculators, the contra-
dictory action of the diflfei-ent provincial govermnents,
joined to English weakness and mismanagement iji
the last war, all conspired to alienate them and to aid
t^e efforts of the French agents, who cajoled and
threatened them by turns. But for Johnson these
intrigues would have prevailed. He had held a
series of councils with them at Fort Johnson during
t^e winter, and not only drew from them a promise
to stand by the English, but persuaded all the con-
federated tribes, except the Cayugas, to consent that
the English should build forts near their chief towns,
under the pretext of protecting them from the
French. 1
In June he went to Onondaga, well escorted, for
the way was dangerous. This capital of the confed-
eracy was under a cloud. It had just lost one Red
Head, its chief sachem; and first of all it behooved
t^e baronet to condole their affliction. The ceremony
was long, with compliments, lugubrious speeches,
wampum-belts, the scalp of an enemy to replace the
departed, and a final glass of rum for each of the
assembled mourners. The conferences lasted a fort-
night; and when Johnson took his leave, the tribes
stood pledged to lift the hatchet for the English.'
^ Conferencei hettoeen Sir William Johnson and the Indians, Decern
6er, 1766, to February, 1766, in N. Y. Col. Docs., Tii. 44-74. Accawit
of Conferences held and Treaties made between Sir William Johnson j
Bart., and the Indian Nations of North America (London, 1766).
3 Minutes of Councils at Onondaga, 10 June to 3 July, 1766, in jV. Y
C6L Docs., Yii. 184-160.
1766.] INDIAN DEPUTIES. 406
When he returned to Fort Johnson a fever seized
him, and he lay helpless for a time ; then rose from
his sick bed to meet another congregation of Indians.
These were deputies of the Five Nations, with
Mohegans from the Hudson, and Delawares and
Shawanoes from the Susquehanna, whom he had per*
suaded to visit him in hope that he might induce
them to cease from murdering the border settlers.
All their tribesmen were in arms against the English ;
but he prevailed at last, and they accepted the war^
belt at his hands. The Delawares complained that
their old conquerors, the Five Nations, had forced
them ^^to wear the petticoat; " that is, to be counted
not as warriors but as women. Johnson, in presence
of all the Assembly, now took off the figurative gar-
ment, and pronounced them henceforth men. A
grand war-dance followed. A hundred and fifty
Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Delawares, Shawa-
noes, and Mohegans stamped, whooped, and yelled
all night. ^ In spite of Piquet, the two Joncaires,
and the rest of the French agents, Johnson had
achieved a success. But would the Indians keep
their word? It was more than doubtful. While
some of them treated with him on the Mohawk,
others treated with Yaudreuil at Montreal.^ A dis-
play of military vigor on the English side, crowned
1 Minutes of CounciU at Fort Johnson, 9 July to 12 July, in N. Y,
Col. Docs., vii. 152-160.
* Conferences between M. de Vaudreuil and the Fivs Nations, 28
Juljf to 20 August, in N, Y. Col. Docs., z. 44&-463.
406 OSWEGO. [1760.
by some signal victory, would alone make their
alliance sure.
It was not the French only who thwarted the
efforts of Johnson; for while he strove to make
friends of the Delawares and Shawanoes, Governor
Morris of Pennsylvania declared war against them,
and Governor Belcher of New Jersey followed his
example ; though persuaded at last to hold his hand
till the baronet had tried the virtue of pacific
measures.^
What Shirley longed for was the collecting of a
body of Five Nation warriors at Oswego to aid him
in his cherished enterprise against Niagara and
Frontenac. The warriors had promised him to
come ; but there was small hope that they would do
so. Meanwhile he was at Albany pursuing his
preparations, posting his scanty force in the forts
newly built on the Mohawk and the Great Carrying
Place, and sending forward stores and provisions.
Having no troops to spare for escorts^ he invented a
plan which, like everjrthing he did, was bitterly
criticised. He took into pay two thousand boatmen,
gathered from all parts of the country, including
many whalemen from the eastern coasts of New Eng-
land, divided them into companies of fifty, armed
each with a gun and a hatchet, and placed them
under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel John
> Johruon to Lordi of Trade, 28 May, 1766. Ibid., 17 Jii/y, 1766.
JohnBon to ShirUif, 24 April, 1766. Colonial Records of Pa,. tH. 75, 88^
191
1756.] BRADSTREET'S BOATMEN. 407
Bradstareet ^ Thus organized, they would, he hoped,
require no escort. Bradstreet was a New England
officer who had been a captain in the last war, some*
what dogged and self-opinioned, but brave, energetic,
and well fitted for this kind of service.
In May Vaudreuil sent Coulon de Villiers with
eleven hundred soldiers, Canadians, and Indians, to
harass Oswego and cut its communications with
Albany.* Nevertheless Bradstreet safely conducted
a convoy of provisions and military stores to the gar-
rison; and on the third of July set out on his return
with the empty boats. The party were pushing their
way up the river in three divisions. The first of
these, consisting of a hundred boats and three hun->
dred men, with Bradstreet at their head, were about
nine miles from Oswego, when, at three in the after-
noon, they received a heavy volley from the forest on
the east bank. It was fired by a part of Villiers'
command, consisting, by English accounts, of about
seven hundred men. A considerable number of t^e
boatmen were killed or disabled, and the others
made for the shelter of the western shore. Some
prisoners were taken in the confusion; and if the
French had been content to stop here, they might
fairly have claimed a kind of victory: but, eager to
push their advantage, they tried to cross under cover
of an island just above. Bradstreet saw the move-
1 Shirtey to Fox, 7 May, 1766. ShvUjf to AbercrombU,7^ Jtoitp
1766. Loudon to Fox, 10 August, 1766.
* IMtai'l de ce qui t*ut jxuU en Cdmuia, Octobre, 176&-^Mtfi, 1766
408 OSWEGO. [17W.
ment, and landed on the island with six or eight fol-
lowers, among whom was young Captain Schuyler,
afterwards General Schuyler of the Revolution.
Their fire kept the enemy in check till others joined
them, to the number of about twenty. These a
second and a third time beat back the French, who
now gave over the attempt, and made for another
ford at some distance above. Bradstreet saw their
intention ; and collecting two hundred and fifty men,
was about to advance up the west bank to oppose
them, when Dr. Kirkland, a surgeon, came to tell
him that the second division of boats had come up,
and that the men had landed. Bradstreet ordered
them to stay where they were, and defend the lower
crossing: then hastened forward; but when he
reached the upper ford, the French had passed tlie
river, and were ensconced in a pine swamp near the
shore. Here he attacked them; and both parties
fired at each other from behind trees for an hour,
with little effect. Bradstreet at length encouraged
his men to make a rush at the enemy, who were put
to flight and driven into the river, where many were
shot or drowned as they tried to cross. Another
party of the French had meanwhile passed by a ford
still higher up to support their comrades; but the
fight was over before they reached the spot, and they
in their turn were set upon and driven back across
the stream. Half an hour after. Captain Patten
arrived from Onondaga with the grenadiers of
Shirley's regiment; and late in the evening two
1756.] BRADSTREET'S FIGHT. 409
hundred men came from Oswego to reinforce the
victors. In t^e morning Bradstreet prepared to
follow the French to their camp, twelve miles dis-
tant; but was prevented by a heavy rain which lasted
all day. On the Monday following, he and his men
reached Albany, bringing two prisoners, eighty
French muskets, and many knapsacks picked up in
the woods. He had lost between sixty and seventy
killed, wounded, and taken. ^
This affair was trumpeted through Canada as a
victory of the French. Their notices of it are dis-
cordant, though very brief. One of them says that
ViUiers had four hundred men. Another gives him
five hundred, and a third eight hundred, against
fifteen hundred English, of whom they killed eight
hundred, or an Englishman apiece. A fourth writer
boasts that six hundred Frenchmen killed nine hun-
dred English. A fifth contents himself with four
hundred; but thinks that forty more would have
been slain if the Indians had not fired too soon. He
sayB further that there were three hundred boats;
and presently forgetting himself, adds that five hun-
dred were taken or destroyed. A sixth announces a
great capture of stores and provisions, though all the
1 Letter of J. Choatet Albany, 12 July, 1766, in Ifassachiuettf
Archives, It. Three Letters Jrom Albany, July, Augutt, 1766, in Doe.
History of N, Y., i. 482. Review of Military Operations. Shirley <•
Fox, 26 July, 1766. Abercrombie to Sir Charles Hardy, 11 July, 1766.
Kiles, in Mass. Hist. ColL, Fourth Series, r. 417. Lossing, Life of
Schuyler, i. 181 (1860). Mante, 60. Bradatreefs condact on thif
occasion afterwards gained for him the warm praises of Wolfe.
410 OSWEGO. [176a
boats were empty. A seyenih reports that the Cana-
dians killed about three hundred, and would have
killed more but for t^e bad quality of their toma-
hawks. An eighth, with rare modesty, puts the
English loss at fifty or sixty. That of Villiers is
given in every proportion of killed or wounded, from
one up to ten. Thus was Canada roused to martial
ardor, and taught to look for future triumphs cheaply
bought.^
The success of Bradstreet silenced for a time the
enemies of Shirley. His cares, however, redoubled.
He was anxious for Oswego, as the two prisoners
declared that the French meant to attack it, instead
of waiting to be attacked from it. Nor was the news
from that quarter reassuring. The engineer, Mac-
kellar, wrote that the works were incapable of
defence; and Colonel Mercer, the commandant,
reported general discontent in the garrison.^ Captain
John Vicars, an invalid officer of Shirley's regiment,
arrived at Albany with yet more deplorable accounts.
He had passed the winter at Oswego, where he
declared the dearth of food to have been such that
several councils of war had been held on the question
of abandoning the place from sheer starvation. More
^ Nouvelles du Camp €tahli au Portage de Chouaguenf premihre
Relation. Ibid., S€conde Relation^ 10 JuHlet, 1756. BougainTille,
Journal, who gives the report ai he heard it. Lettre du R. P,
Cocquard, S. J., 1766. Vaudreuil au Mimstre, 10 Juiilet, 1756. C/rtv-
linet de Quebec, ii. 292. N. Y. Col, Doc$., x. 494, 467, 477, 483. Some
prisoners taken in the first attack were bronght to Montreal, where
their presence gave countenance to these fabrications.
* Maekeliar to Shirley, June, 1756. Mercer to Shirky, 2 Jviy, 1756.
1766.] STATE OP THE GARRISON. 411
than half his regiment died of hunger or disease;
and, in his own words, ^^had the poor fellows lived
t^ey must have eaten one another." Some of the
men were lodged in barracks, though without beds,
while many lay all winter in huts on the bare ground.
Scurvy and dysentery made frightful havoc. "In
January," says Vicars, "we were informed by the
Indians that we were to be attacked. The garrison
was then so weak that the strongest guard we pro-
posed to mount was a subaltern and twenty men ; but
we were seldom able to mount more than sixteen or
eighteen, and half of those were obliged to have
sticks in their hands to support them. The men
were so weak that the sentries often fell down on
their posts, and lay there till the relief came and lifted
them up." His own company of fifty was reduced to
ten. The other regiment of the garrison, Pepperrell's,
or the fifty-first, was quartered at Fort Ontario, on
the other side of the river; and being better sheltered^
suffered less.
The account given by Vicars of the state of the
defences was scarcely more flattering. He reported
that the principal fort had no cannon on the side
most exposed to attack. Two pieces had been
mounted on the trading-house in the centre ; but as
the concussion shook down stones from the wall
whenever they were fired, they had since been
removed. The second work, called Fort Ontario, he
had not seen since it was finished, having been too
ill to cross the river. Of the third, called NfjMT
412 OSWEGO. [1766.
Oswego, or "Fort Rascal/' he testifies thus: "It
never was finished, and there were no loop-holes in
the stockades; so that they could not fire out of the
fort but by opening the gate and firing out of
that."i
Through the spring and early summer Shirley
was gathering recruits, often of the meanest quality,
and sending them to Oswego to fill out the two ema-
ciated regiments. The place must be defended at
any cost. Its fall would ruin not only the enterprise
against Niagara and Frontenac, but also that against
Ticonderoga and Crown Point; since, having nothing
more to fear on Lake Ontario, the French could unite
their whole force on Lake Champlain, whether for
defence or attack.
Towards the end of June Abercrombie and Webb
arrived at Albany, bringing a reinforcement of nine
hundred regulars, consisting of Otway's regiment, or
a part of it, and a body of Highlanders. Shirley
resigned his command, and Abercrombie requested
him to go to New York, wait there till Lord Loudon
arrived, and lay before him the state of affairs.^
Shirley waited till the twenty-third of July, when
t^e earl at length appeared. He was a rough Scotch
lord, hot and irascible; and the communications of
his predecessor, made, no doubt, in a manner some-
1 Information of Captain John Vicars, of the Fiftieth {Shirley*$) Regi-
ment, enclosed with a despatch of Lord Loudon. Vicars was a
reteran British officer who left Oswego with Bradstreet on the third
of July. Shirley to Loudon, 6 September, 1766.
s Shirley to Fox, 4 July, 1756.
1756.] LOUDON. 418
what pompous and self-satisfied, did not please him.
"I got from Major-General Shirley," he says, "a
few papers of very little use; only he insinuated to
me that I would find eveiything prepared, and have
nothing to do but to pull laurels ; which I understand
was his constant conversation before my arrival." ^
Loudon sailed up the Hudson in no placid mood.
On reaching Albany he abandoned the attempt
against Niagara and Frontenac ; and had resolved to
turn his whole force against Ticonderoga, when he
was met by an obstacle that both perplexed and
angered him. By a royal order lately issued, all
general and field officers with provincial commissions
were to take rank only as eldest captains when serv-
ing in conjunction with regular troops.^ Hence the
whole provincial army, as Winslow observes, might
be put under the command of any British major.^
The announcement of this regulation naturally caused
great discontent. The New England officers held a
meeting, and voted with one voice that in their belief
its enforcement would break up the provincial army
and prevent the raising of another. Loudon, hear-
ing of this, desired Winslow to meet him at Albany
for a conference on the subject. Thither Winslow
went with some of his chief officers. The earl asked
them to dinner, and there was much talk, with no
satisfactory result; whereupon, somewhat chafed, he
* Loudon (to Fox?), 10 August, 1766.
* Order concerning the Rank of Provincial General and Field Offieerg
in North America. Given at our Court at Ketuington, 12 May, 1766.
s Winslow to Shirley, 21 August, 1766.
414 OSWEGO. [1766.
required Winslow to answer in writing, yes or no,
whether the provincial officers would obey the com-
mander-in-chief and act in conjunction with the
regtilars. Thus forced to choose between acquies-
cence and flat mutiny, they declared their submission
to his orders, at the same time asking as a favor that
they might be allowed to act independently; to
which Loudon gave for the present an unwilling
assent. Shirley, who, in spite of his removal from
command, had the good of the service deeply at
heart, was much troubled at this affair, and wrote
strong letters to Winslow in the interest of harmony.^
Loudon next proceeded to examine the state of
the provincial forces, and sent Lieutenant-Colonel
Burton, of the regulars, to observe and report upon
it. Winslow by this time had made a forward move-
ment, and was now at Lake George with nearly half
his command, while the rest were at Fort Edward
under Lyman, or in detachments at Saratoga and the
other small posts below. Burton found Winslow's
men encamped with their right on what are now the
grounds of Fort William Henry Hotel, and their
left extending southward between the mountain in
their front and the marsh in their rear. ^^ There are
here," he reports, "about twenty-five hundred men,
five himdred of them sick, the greatest part of them
what they call poorly; they bury from five to eight
^ CorreBpondence of Loudon, Abercrombie,€tnd ShtrUtf, Juhf, August,
1766. Record of Meeting of Provincial Officers, July, 1756. LOUr and
Order Books of Winslow.
176(J.] PROVINCIAL CAMPS. 416
daily, and officers in proportion; extremely indolent,
and dirty to a degree/' Then, in vernacular Eng-
lish, he describes the infectious condition of the fort,
which was full of the sick. "Their camp," he pro-
ceeds, "is nastier than anything I could conceive;
their , kitchens, graves, and places for slaughter-
ing cattle all mixed through their encampment; a
great waste of provisions, the men having just what
they please; no great command kept up. Colonel
Gridley governs the general; not in the least alert;
only one advanced guard of a subaltern and twenty-
four men. The cannon and stores in great confu-
sion." Of the camp at Fort Edward he gives a
better account. "It is much cleaner than at Fort
William Henry, but not sufficiently so to keep the
men healthy; a much better command kept up here.
General Lyman very ready to order out to work and
to assist the engineers with any number of men they
require, and keeps a succession of scouting-parties
out towards Wood Creek and South Bay."^
The prejudice of the regular officer may have
colored the picture, but it is certain that the sanitary
condition of the provincial camps was extremely bad.
"A grievous sickness among the troops," writes a
Massachusetts surgeon at Fort Edward; "we bury
five or six a day. Not more than two-thirds of our
army fit for duty. Long encampments are the bane
of New England men."' Like all raw recruits, they
1 Bmrton to Loudon, 27 Augtut, 1766.
s Dr. Thoma$ WiUiami to Colonel Israel Williami, 2S August, 17661
416 OSWEGO. ri76«.
did not know how to take care of themselves; and
their officeis had not the experience, knowledge, or
habit of command to enforce sanitary rules. The
same evils were found among the Canadians when
kept long in one place. Those in the camp of
Villiers are reported at this time as nearly all sick.^
Another penman, veiy different from the military^
critic, was also on the spot, noting down every day
what he saw and felt. This was John Graham, min-
ister of Suffield, in Connecticut, and now chaplain
of Lyman's regiment. His spirit, by nature far from
buoyant, was depressed by bodily ailments, and still
more by t^e extremely secular character of his
present surroundings. It appears by his Diary that
he left home ^^ under great exercise of mind," and
was detained at Albany for a time, being, as he says,
taken with an ague-fit and a quinsy; but at length
he reached the camp at Fort Edward, where deep
despondency fell upon him. ^^ Labor under great
discouragements," says the Diary, under date of July
twenty-eighth; "for find my business but mean. in
the esteem of many, and think there 's not much for
a chaplain to do." Again, Tuesday, August seven-
teenth: "Breakfasted this morning with the General.
But a graceless meal; never a blessing asked, nor
thanks given. At the evening sacrifice a more open
spene of wickedness. The General and head officers,
with some of the regular officers, in General Lyman's
tent, within four rods of the place of public prayers.
1 Boagainvillei JoumaL
176«.] TRIALS OP A CHAPLAIN. 417
None came to prayers ; but they fixed a table witb«
out the door of the tent, where a head colonel was
posted to make punch in the sight of all, they within
drinking, talking, and laughing during the whole of
the service, to the disturbance and disaffection of
most present. This was not only a bare neglect^
but an open contempt, of the worship of God by the
heads of this army. 'Twas but last Sabbath that
General Lyman spent the time of divine service in
the afternoon in his tent, drinking in company with
Mr. Gordon, a regular officer. I have oft heard
cursing and swearing in his presence by some provin-
cial field-officers, but never heard a reproof nor so much
as a check to them come from his mouth, though
be never uses such language himself. Lord, what
is manl Truly, the May-game of Fortune! Lord,
make me know my duty, and what I ought to do! "
That night his sleep was broken and his soul
troubled by angry voices under his window, where
one Colonel Glasier was berating, in unhallowed
language, the captain of the guard; and here the
chaplain's Journal abruptly ends.^
A brother minister, bearing no likeness to the
worthy Graham, appeared on the same spot some
time after. This was Chaplain William Crawford,
of Worcester, who, having neglected to bring money
to the war, suffered much annoyance, aggravated by
what he thought a want of due consideration for his
1 I owe to my friend George S. Hale, Esq., the opportunity of
examining the autograph Journal ; it has since been printed in the
Magazine of American Hittorjf for March, 1882.
VOL.1.— 27
418 OSWEGO. [1766
person and office. His indignation finds vent in a
letter to his townsman, Timothy Paine, member of
the General Court: ^^No man can reasonably expect
that I can with any propriety discharge the duty of a
chaplain when I have nothing either to eat or drink,
nor any conveniency to write a line other than to sit
down upon a stump and put a piece of paper upon
my knee. As for Mr. Weld [anotlier chaplain]^
he is easy and silent whatever treatment he meets
with, and I suppose they thought to find me the
same easy and ductile person; but may the wide
yawning earth devour me first! The state of the
camp is just such as one at home would guess it to
be, — nothing but a hurry and confusion of vice and
wickedness, with a stygian atmosphere to breathe
in."^ The vice and wickedness of which he com-
plains appear to have consisted in a frequent infrac-
tion of the standing order against ^^Curseing and
Swareing," as well as of that which required attend-
ance on daily prayers, and enjoined ^Hhe people to
appear in a decent manner, clean and shaved,^' at
the t^o Sunday Bennons.'
At the beginning of August Winslow wrote to the
* The autograph letter is in Massachusetts Archiyes, Ivi. no. 142.
The same yolume contains a letter from Colonel Frye, of Massa-
chusetts, in which he speaks of the forlorn condition in which
Chaplain Weld reached the camp. Of Chaplain Crawford, he says
that he came decently clothed, but without bed or blanket, till he,
Frye, lent them to him, and got Captain Learned to take him into
hit tent. Chaplains usuaUy had a separate tent, or shared that of
the colonel.
* lAtUr and Order Bocks of Win$low.
1756.J ANXIETY. 419
committees of the several provinces: ^^It looks as if
it won't be long before we are fit for a remove," —
that is, for an advance on Ticonderoga. On the
twelfth Loudon sent Webb with the forty-fourth
regiment and some of Bradstreet's boatmen to rein-
force Oswego*^ They had been ready for a month ;
but confusion and misunderstanding arising from the
change of conunand had prevented their departure.^
Tet the utmost anxiety had prevailed for the safety
of that important post, and on the twenty-eighth
Surgeon Thomas Williams wrote : " Whether Oswego
is yet ours is uncertain. Would hope it is, as the
reverse would be such a terrible shock as the country
never felt, and may be a sad omen of what is coming
upon poor sinful New England. Indeed, we can't
expect anything but to be severely chastened till we
are humbled for our pride and haughtiness."^
His foreboding proved true. Webb had scarcely
reached the Great Carrying Place, when tidings of
disaster fell upon him like a thunderbolt. The
French had descended in force upon Oswego, taken
it with all its garrison; and, as report ran, were
advancing into the province, six thousand strong.
Wood Creek had just been cleared, with great labor,
of the trees that choked it. Webb ordered others to
be felled and thrown into the stream to stop the
progress of the enemy; then, with shameful precipi-
1 Loudon (to Fozt), 19 Augutt, 1756.
^ Conduct of Major- Crtneral Shirley briefly gtated, ShirUy to Loudon^
4 September, 1756. ShiHey to Fox, 16 September, 1756.
• Tkomae WUlianu to Colonel lerael WilUame, 28 AuguM, 1756.
420 OSWEGO. [1766L
tation, he burned the forts of the Carrying Place,
and retreated down the Mohawk to Gennan Flats.
Loudon ordered Winslow to think no more of Ticon-
deroga, but to stay where he was and hold the French
in check. All was astonishment and dismay at the
sudden blow. ^' Oswego has changed masters, and I
think we may justly fear that the whole of our
country will soon follow, unless a merciful God
prevent, and awake a sinful people to repentance and
reformation." Thus wrote Dr. Thomas Williams to his
wife from the camp at Fort Edward. " Such a shock-
ing affair has never found a place in English annals,"
wrote the surgeon's young relative, Colonel William
Williams. "The loss is beyond account; but the dis-
honor done His Majesty's arms is infinitely greater." ^
It remains to see how the catastrophe befell.
Since Vaudreuil became chief of the colony he had
nursed the plan of seizing Oswego, yet hesitated to
attempt it. Montcalm declares that he confirmed the
governor's wavering purpose ; but Montcalm himself
had hesitated. In July, however, there came exag-
gerated reports that the English were moving upon
Ticonderoga in greatly increased numbers; and both
Vaudreuil and the general conceived that a feint
against Oswego would draw off the strength of the
assailants, and, if promptly and secretly executed,
might even be turned successfully into a real attack.
Vaudreuil thereupon recalled Montcalm from Ticon-
2 CoUmei WUUam WilUanu to Colonel lirael WUlianu, 30 Augun
1766.
176e.] PREPARATION AGAINST IT. 421
deroga.^ Leaving that post in the keeping of Ldvifl
and three thousand men, he embarked on Lake
Champlain, rowed day and night, and reached Mont-
real on the nineteenth. Troops were arriving from
Quebec, and Indians from the far West. A band of
Menominies from beyond Lake Michigan, naked,
painted, plumed, greased, stamping, uttering sharp
yelps, shaking feathered lances, brandishing toma-
hawks, danced the war-dance before the governor, to
the thumping of the Indian drum. Bougainville
looked on astonished, and thought of the Pyrrhic
dance of the Greeks.
Montcalm and he left Montreal on the twenty-first,
and reached Fort Frontenac in eight days. Rigaud,
brother of the governor, had gone thither some time
before, and crossed with seven hundred Canadians to
the south side of the lake, where Villiers was en-
camped at Niaour^ Bay, now Sackett's Harbor, with
such of his detachment as war and disease had spared.
Rigaud relieved him, and took command of the united
bands. With their aid the engineer, DescomUes,
reconnoitred the English forts, and came back with
the report that success was certain.^ It was but a
confirmation of what had already been learned from
deserters and prisoners, who declared that the main
fort was but a loopholed wall held by six or seven
hundred men, ill-fed, discontented, and mutinous.'
1 Vaudreuil au Ministre, 12 AoAt, 1766. Montcalm h ia Femmt, 21
Juiilet, 1750.
> Ibid., 4 A(nU, 1756. Vaudreuil h Bourlamaque, ^Juin, 1766.
* Bougain vUle, /ourno/.
422 OSWEGO. [1766.
Others said that they had been driven to desert by
the want of good food, and that within a year twelve
hundred men had died of disease at Oswego.^
The battalions of La Sarre, Guienne, and B^am,
with the colony regulars, a body of Canadians, and
about two hundred and fifty Indians, were destined
for the enterprise. The whole force was a little
above three thousand, abundantly supplied with
artillery. La Sarre and Guienne were already at
Fort Frontenac. B^rn was at Niagara, whence it
arrived in a few days, much buffeted by the storms
of Lake Ontario. On the fourth of August all was
ready. Montcalm embarked at night with the first
division, crossed in darkness to Wolf Island, lay
there hidden all day, and embarking again in the
evening, joined Rigaud at Niaour^ Bay at seven
o'clock in the morning of the sixth. The second
division followed, with provisions, hospital train, and
eighty artillery boats; and on the eighth all were
united at the bay. On the ninth Rigaud, covered
by the universal forest, marched in advance to protect
the landing of the troops. Montcalm followed with
the first division; and, coasting the shore in bateaux,
landed at midnight of the tenth within half a league
of the first English fort. Four cannon were planted
in battery upon the strand, and the men bivouacked
by their boats. So skilful were the assailants and so
careless the assailed that the English knew nothing
1 VaudreuU au Ministre, 10 Juillet, 176a RisumS du N<mvelU§ A
Canada, Septembre, 1766.
1768.J MONTCALM ATTACKS IT. 428
of their danger, till in the morning, a reconnoitring
canoe discovered the invaders. Two armed vessels
soon came to cannonade them; but their light guns
were no match for the heavy artillery of the French,
and they were forced to keep the offing.
Descombles, the engineer, went before dawn to
reconnoitre the fort, with several other officers and a
party of Indians. While he was thus employed, one
of these savages, hungry for scalps, took him in the
gloom for an Englishman, and shot him dead. Cap-
tain Pouchot, of the battalion of B^am, replaced
him; and the attack was pushed vigorously. The
Canadians and Indians, swarming through the forest,
fired all day on the fort under cover of the trees.
The second division came up with twenty-two more
cannon; and at night the first parallel was marked
out at a hundred and eighty yards from the rampart.
Stumps were grubbed up, fallen trunks shoved
aside, and a trench dug, sheltered by fascines,
gabions, and a strong abattis.
Fort Ontario, counted as the best of the three forts
at Oswego, stood on a high plateau at the east or
right side of the river where it entered the lake. It
was in the shape of a star, and was formed of trunks
of trees set upright in the ground, hewn flat on
two sides, and closely fitted together, — an excellent
defence against musketry or swivels, but worthless
against cannon. The garrison, three hundred and
seventy in all, were the remnant of Pepperrell's regi-
ment, joined to raw recruits lately sent up to fill the
424 OSWEGO. (17»
places of the sick and dead. They had eight BmaU
cannon and a mortar, with which on the next day,
Friday, the thirteenth, they kept up a brisk fire till
towards night; when, after growing more rapid for a
time, it ceased, and the fort showed no sign of life.
Not a cannon had yet opened on them from the
trenches; but it was certain that with the French
artillery once in action, their wooden rampart would
be shivered to splinters. Hence it was that Colonel
Mercer, commandant at Oswego, thinking it better
to lose the fort than to lose both fort and garrison,
signalled to them from across the river to abandon
their position and join him on the other side. Boats
were sent to bring them off ; and they passed over
unmolested, after spiking their cannon and firing
off their ammunition or throwing it into the well.
The fate of Oswego was now sealed. The prin-
cipal work, called Old Oswego, or Fort Pepperrell,
stood at the mouth of the river on the west side,
nearly opposite Fort Ontario, and less than five hun-
dred yards distant from it. The trading-house, which
formed the centre of the place, was built of rough
stone laid in clay, and the wall which enclosed it was
of the same materials; both would crumble in an
instant at the touch of a twelve-pound shot. Towards
the West and South they had been protected by an
outer line of earthworks, mounted with cannon, and
forming an intrenched camp; while the side towards
Fort Ontario was left wholly exposed, in the rash
confidence that this work, standing on the opposite
17M.] ITS CONDITION. 425
heights, would guard against attack from that quarter.
On a hill, a fourth of a mile beyond Old Oswego,
stood the unfinished stockade called New Oswego,
Fort George, or, by reason of its worthlessness, Fort
Rascal. It had served as a cattle-pen before the
French appeared, but was now occupied by a hundred
and fifty Jersey provincials. Old Oswego with its
outwork was held by Shirley's regiment, chiefly
invalids and raw recruits, to whom were now joined
the garrison of Fort Ontario and a number of sailors,
boatmen, and laborers.
Montcalm lost no time. As soon as darkness set
in he began a battery at the brink of the height on
which stood the captured fort. His whole force
toiled all night, digging, setting gabions, and drag-
ging up cannon, some of which had been taken from
Bi*addock. Before daybreak twenty heavy pieces
had been brought to the spot, and nine were already
in position. The work had been so rapid that the
English imagined their enemies to number six thou-
sand at least. The battery soon opened fire. Grape
and round shot swept the intrenchment and crashed
through the rotten masonry. The English, says a
French officer, "were exposed to their shoe-buckles.'*
Their artillery was pointed the wrong way, in expec-
tation of an attack, not from the east, but from the
west. They now made a shelter of pork-barrels,
three high and three deep, planted cannon behind
them, and returned the French fire with some effect.
EatIj in the morning Montcalm had ordered Rigaud
426 OSWEGO [17M.
to croflB Hie river with the Canadians and Indians.
There was a ford three quarters of a league above the
forts; ^ and here they passed over unopposed, the
English not having discovered the movement.^ The
only danger was from the river. Some of the men
were forced to swim, others waded to the waist, and
others to the neck; but they all crossed safely, and
presently showed themselves at the edge of the woods,
yelling and firing their guns, too far for much execu-
tion, but not too far to discourage the garrison.
The garrison were already disheartened. Colonel
Mercer, the soul of the defence, had just been cut in
two by a cannonnshot while directing the gunners.
Up to this time the defenders had behaved with
spirit; but despair now seized them, increased by the
screams and entreaties of the women, of whom there
were more than a hundred in the place. There was
a council of officers, and then the white flag was
raised. Bougainville went to propose terms of capitu-
lation. ^^The cries, threats, and hideous bowlings
of our Canadians and Indians," says Vaudreuil,
"made them quickly decide." "This," observes the
Reverend Father Claude Godefroy Cocquard, "re-
minds me of the fall of Jericho before the shouts of
the Israelites." The English surrendered prisoners
of war, to the number, according to the governor, of
sixteen hundred,^ which included the sailors, laborers,
^ Bougainyille, Journal, * Pouchot, i. 76.
• Vaudreuil au Mimstre, 20 Aodt, 1756. He elsewhere makei the
namber somewhat greater. That the garrison, exclutiye of cir-
1766.] ITS CAPTURE. 427
and women. The Canadians and Indians broke
through all restraint, and fell to plundering. There
was an opening of rum-barrels and a scene of drunk-
enness, in which some of the prisoners had their
share; while others tried to escape in the confusion,
and were tomahawked by the excited savages. Many
more would have been butchered, but for the efforts
of Montcalm, who by unstinted promises succeeded
in appeasing his ferocious allies, whom he dared not
offend. "It will cost the King," he says, "eight or
ten thousand livres in presents."^
The loss on both sides is variously given. By the
most trustworthy accounts, that of the English did
not reach fifty killed, and that of the French was still
less. In the forts and vessels were found above a
hundred pieces of artillery, most of them swivels and
other light guns, with a large quantity of powder,
shot, and shell. The victors burned the forts and
the vessels on the stocks, destroyed such provisions
and stores as they could not carry away, and made
the place a desert. The priest Piquet, who had
joined the expedition, planted amid the ruin a tall
UiAiis, did not exceed at the utmost fourteen hundred, it shown by
Shirley to Loudon, 5 September, 1766. Loudon had charged Shirley
with leaving Oswego weakly garrisoned ; and Shirley replies by
aUeging that the troops there were in number as aboye. It was of
course his interest to make them appear as numerous as possible.
In the printed Conduct of Major- General Shirley briefly itated, they
are put at only ten hundred and fifty.
^ Several English writers say, however, that fifteen or twenty
young men were given up to the Indians to be adopted in place of
warriors lately kiUed.
428 OSWEGO. [17501
cross, graven wiUi the words. In hoc signo vincumt;
and near it was set a pole bearing the arms of France,
with the inscription, Manibus date lilia plenis. Then
the army decamped, loaded with prisoners and spoil,
descended to Montreal, hung the captured flags in the
churches, and sang Te Deum in honor of their triumph.
It was the greatest that the French arms had yet
achieved in America. The defeat of Braddock was
an Indian victory; this last exploit was the result of
bold enterprise and skilful tactics. With its laurels
came its fruits. Hated Oswego had been laid in
ashes, and the would-be assailants forced to a vain
and hopeless defence. France had conquered the
undisputed command of Lake Ontario, and her com*
munications with the West were safe. A small gar*
rison at Niagara and another at Frontenac would
now hold those posts against any effort that the Eng*
lish could make this year; and the whole French
force could concentrate at Ticonderoga, repel thft
threatened attack, and perhaps retort it by seizing
Albany. If the English, on the other side, had lost
a great material advantage, they had lost no less in
honor. The news of the surrender was received with
indignation in England and in the colonies. Yet
the behavior of the garrison was not so discreditable
as it seemed. The position was indefensible, and
they could have held out at best but a few day^ more.
They yielded too soon; but unless Webb had come
to their aid, which was not to be expected, they
must have yielded at last.
1766.] RESULTS OF ITS FALL. 429
The French had scarcely gone, when two English
scouts, Thomas Harris and James Conner, came with
a party of Indians to the scene of desolation. The
ground was strewn with broken casks and bread
sodden with rain. The remains of burnt bateaux
and whaleboats were scattered along the shore. The
great stone trading-house in the old fort was a smok-
ing ruin ; Fort Rascal was still burning on the neigh-
boring hill; Fort Ontario was a mass of ashes and
charred logs, and by it stood two poles on which
were written words which the visitors did not under-
stand. They went back to Fort Johnson with their
story; and Oswego reverted for a time to the bears,
foxes, and wolves.^
^ On the capture of Oswego, the authorities examined have been
▼ery numerous, and only the best need be named. Livre tTOrdres,
Campagne de 1756, contains all orders from headquarters. M€moin
pour servir (f Instruction a M.U Marquis de Montcalm, 21 Juiiiet, 1756,
sign^ Vaudreuil. Bougainyille, Journal, Vaudreuil au Ministre, 15 Juin,
1756 (designs against Oswego). Ibid., 13 AoAt, 1755. lUd., 30 AoAt.
Pouchot, i. 67-81. Relation de la Prise des Forts de Chouaguen. Bigot
au Ministre, 8 Septembre, 1756. Journal du SiSge de Chouaguen,
Pr€eis des ilvinemenU, 1756. Montcalm au Ministre, 20 JuiUet, 1756.
Ibid., 28 Ao(U, 1756. Desandrouins h — ^, mSme date. Montcalm h sa
Femme, 80 AoHt. Translations of several of the above papers, along
with others less important, will be found in N. Y. Col. Docs,, x.,
and Doc Hist. N. Y., i.
State of Facts relating to the Loss of Oswego, in London Magazine
for 1757, p. 14. Correspondence of Shirley. Correspondence of Loudon,
Littlehales to Loudon, 80 August, 1756. Hardy to Lords of Trade, 5
September, 1756. Conduct of Major-General Shirley briefly stated.
Declaration of some Soldiers of Shirley's Regiment, in N, Y. Col. Docs.^
rii. 126. Letter from an officer present, in Boston Evening Post of
16 May, 1757. The published plans and drawings of Oswego at this
time are very inexact
CHAPTER Xm.
1756, 1767.
PARTISAN WAR.
Failusb of Shirlbt'b Plaw. — Caubbb. — LouDOir ahd Shiblkt.
— Clobb of the CiLMPiLioir. — Ths Webtbrn Border. — Arm-
STRONG DEBTROT8 KiTTJlNNIMO. — ThE SgOUTS OF LaKB
GeOROE. — WjlR-PARTIEB FROM TlCOlTDEROOA. — BOBEHT
RooERB. — The Ranoerb: their Hardihood and Dariko. —
DiBPUTEB AB TO QUARTERS OF TrOOPS. — EXPEDITION OF
RooBRB. — A Debperate Bubh-fioht. — Enterpribe of Vau-
DRBUIL. — RlOAUD ATTACKS FORT WiLLIAM HeNRT.
Shirlet's grand scheme for cutting New France in
twain had come to wreck. There was an element of
boyishness in him. He made bold plans without
weighing too closely his means of executing them.
The year's campaign would in all likelihood have suc-
ceeded if he could have acted promptly; if he had
had ready to his hand a well-trained and well-officered
force, furnished with material of war and means of
transportation, and prepared to move as soon as the
streams and lakes of New York were open, while
those of Canada were still sealed with ice. But
timely action was out of his power. The army that
should have moved in April was not ready to move
17M.] CAUSES OF SHIRLEY'S FAILURE. 481
till August Of the nine discordant semi-repuUics
whom he asked to join in the work, three or four
refused, some of the others were lukewarm, and all
were slow. Even Massachusetts, usually the fore-
most, failed to get all her men into the field till the
season was nearly ended. Having no military estab-
lishment, the colonies were forced to improvise a
new army for every campaign. Each of them
watched its neighbors, or, jealous lest it should do
more than its just share, waited foi* them to beg^.
Each popular assembly acted under the eye of a fru*
gal constituency, who, having little money, were as
chary of it as their descendants are lavish ; and most
of them were shaken by internal conflicts, more ab-
sorbing than the great question on which hung the
fate of the continent. Only the four New England
colonies were fully earnest for the war, and one, even
of these, was ready to use the crisis as a means of
extorting concessions from its governor in return
for grants of money and men. When the lagging
contingents came together at last, under a com-
mander whom none of them trusted, they were met
by strategical difficulties which would have perplexed
older soldiers and an abler general ; for they were
forced to act on the circumference of a vast semi-
circle, in a labyrinth of forests, without roads, and
choked with every kind of obstruction.
Opposed to them was a trained army, well organ-
ized and commanded, focused at Montreal, and mov-
ing for attack or defence on two radiating lines, — *
432 PARTISAN WAR. [1766.
one towards Lake Ontario, and the other towards
Lake Champlain, — supported by a martial peasan-
try, supplied from France with money and material,
dependent on no popular vote, having no will but
that of its chief, and ready on the instant to strike
to right or left as the need required. It was a
compact military absolutism confronting a hetero-
geneous group of industrial democracies, where the
force of numbers was neutralized by diffusion and
incoherence. A long and dismal apprenticeship
waited them before they could hope for success ; ncwr
could they ever put forth their full strength without
a radical change of political conditions and an awak-
ened consciousness of common interests and a com-
mon cause. It was the sense of powerlessness arising
from the want of imion that, after the fall of Oswego,
spread alarm through the northern and middle colonies,
and drew these desponding words from William
Livingston, of New Jersey : " The colonies are nearly
exhausted, and their funds already anticipated by
expensive unexecuted projects. Jealous are they of
each other; some ill-constituted, others shaken with
intestine divisions, and, if I may be allowed the
expression, parsimonious even to prodigality. Our
assemblies are diffident of their governors, governors
despise their assemblies ; and both mutually misrep-
resent each other to the Court of Great Britain."
Military measures, he proceeds, demand secrecy and
despatch; but when so many divided provinces must,
agree to join in them, secrecy and despatch are
1756.] LOUDON AND SHIRLEY. 488
impossible. In conclusion he exclaims: ^^ Canada
must be demolished, — Delenda est Carthago^ — or we
are undone."^ But Loudon was not Scipio, and cis-
Atlantic Carthage was to stand for some time longer.
The earl, in search of a scapegoat for the loss of
Oswego, naturally chose Shirley, attacked him
savagely, told him that he was of no use in America,
and ordered him to go home to England without
delay.^ Shirley, who was then in Boston, answered
this indecency with dignity and effect.' The chief
fault was with Loudon himself, whose late arrival in
America had caused a chani^e of command and of
pl«. ta ft. eri«« of tt« cL^gn. ShlrUy ^
knew the weakness of Oswego; and in early spring
had sent two engineers to make it defensible, with
particular instructions to strengthen Fort Ontario.^
But they, thinking that the chief danger lay on the
west and south, turned all their attention thither,
and neglected Ontario till it was too late. Shirley
was about to reinforce Oswego with a strong body of
troops when the arrival of Abercrombie took the con-
trol out of his hands and caused ruinous delay. He
cannot, however, be acquitted of mismanagement in
failing to supply the place with wholesome provisions
^ Review of Military Operations, 187, 180 (DubUo, 1767).
> Loudon to Shirley, 6 September, 1756.
* The correspondence on both sides is before me, copied from
the originals in the Public Record Office.
4 " The principal thing for which I sent Mr. Mackellar to Oswego
was to strengthen Fort Ontario as much as he possibly could.*'—
ShrUy to Loudon^ 4 SqOember, 1756.
TOL.L — 28
484 PARTISAN WAR. [176«.
in the preceding autumn, before the streams were
stopped with ice. Hence came the ravages of disease
and famine which, before spring, reduced the garri-
son to a hundred and forty effective men. Yet there
can be no doubt that the change of command was a
blunder. This is the view of Franklin, who knew
Shirley well, and thus speaks of him: "He would in
my opinion, if continued in place, have made a much
better campaign than that of Loudon, which was
frivolous, expensive, and disgraceful to our nation
beyond conception. For though Shirley was not
bred a soldier, he was sensible and sagacious in him-
self, and attentive to good advice from others, capable
of forming judicious plans, and quick and active in
carrying them into execution.';^ He sailed for
England in the autumn, disappointed and poor; the
buU-headed Duke of Cumberland had been deeply
prejudiced against him, and it was only after long
waiting that this strenuous champion of British
interests was rewarded in his old age with the
petty government of the Bahamas.
Loudon had now about ten thousand men at his
command, though not all fit for duty. They were
posted from Albany to Lake George. The earl him-
self was at Fort Edward, while about three thousand
of the provincials still lay, imder Winslow, at the
lake. Montcalm faced them at Ticonderoga, with
five thousand three hundred regulars and Canadians,
in a position where they could defy three times their
1 Works of FrankUn, I 220.
1756.] TETE WESTERN BORDERS. 436
number.^ **The sons of Belial are too strong for
me," jocosely wrote Winslow;* and lie set himself to
intrenching his camp; tlien had the forest cut down
for ike space of a mile from the lake to the moun-
tains, so that the trees, lying in what he calls a
^'promiscuous manner," formed an almost impene-
trable abatis. An escaped prisoner told him that the
French were coming to visit him with fourteen thou-
sand men ; ' but Montcalm thought no more of stir-
ring than Loudon himself; and each stood watching
the other, with the lake between them, till the season
closed.
Meanwhile the western borders were still ravaged
by the tomahawk. New York, New Jersey, Penn-
sylvania, Maryland, and Virginia all writhed under
the infliction. Each had made a chain of block-
houses and wooden forts to cover its frontier, and
manned them with disorderly bands, lawless, and
almost beybnd control.* The case was at the worst
in Pennsylvania, where the tedious quarrelling of
governor and Assembly, joined to the doggedly pacific
attitude of the Quakers, made vigorous defence
impossible. Rewards were offered for prisoners and
scalps, so bountiful that Hie hunting of men would
1 "NouB Bommes tant k Carillon qu'aux postes ayaoc^s 6,800
hommes." — Bougainyille, Journal,
* Wifulow to Loudon, 29 September^ 1766.
' Examination of Serjeant James Archibald,
^ In the Public Becord Office, America and West Indies, Ixzxii.,
is a manuscript map showing the positions of such of these posts as
were north of Virginia. Thej are thirty-five in number, from the
head of James River to a point west of Esopus, on the Hudson.
486 PARTISAN WAR. [1766.
have been a profitable vocation, but for the extreme
wariness and agility of the game.^ Some of the forts
were well-built stockades ; others were almost worth-
less ; but the enemy rarely molested even the feeblest
of them, preferring to ravage the lonely and unpro-
tected farms. There were two or three exceptions.
A Virginian fort was attacked by a war-party under
an officer named Douville, who was killed, and his
followers were put to flight.^ The assailants were
more fortunate at a small stockade called Fort Gran-
ville, on the Juniata. A large body of French and
Indians attacked it in August while most of the gar-
rison were absent protecting the farmers at their
harvest; they set it on fire, and, in spite of a most
gallant resistance by the young lieutenant left in
command, took it, and killed all but one of the
defenders.8
What sort of resistance the Pennsylvanian borderers
would have made under political circumstances less
adverse may be inferred from an exploit of Colonel
John Armstrong, a settler of Cumberland. After
the loss of Fort Granville the governor of the province
sent him with three hundred men to attack the
Delaware town of Kittanning, a populous nest of
savages on the Alleghany, between the two French
posts of Duquesne and Venango. Here most of the
1 Colonial Record* of Pa., vii. 76.
* Wcuhington to Morris, — April, 1766.
* Colonial Records of Pa,, yu. 232, 242 ; Pennsylvania ArektveM,
a 744.
176«.] ATTACK ON KITTANNING. 487
war-parties were fitted out, and the place was full of
stores and munitions furnished by the French. Here,
too, lived the redoubted chief called Captain Jacobs,
the terror of the English border. Armstrong set ou(
from Fort Shirley, the farthest outpost, on the last
of August, and, a week after, was witliin six miles
of the Indian town. By rapid marching and rare
good luck, his party had escaped discovery. It was
ten o'clock at night, with a bright moon. The
guides were perplexed, and knew neither the exact
position of the place nor the paths that led to it.
The adventurers threaded the forest in single file,
over hills and through hollows, bewildered and
anxious, stopping to watch and listen. At length
they heard in the distance the beating of an Indian
drum and the whooping of warriors in the war-dance.
Guided by the sounds, they cautiously moved for-
ward, till those in the front, scrambling down a rocky
hill, found themselves on the banks of the Alleghany,
about a hundred rods below Kittanning. The moon
was near setting; but they could dimly see the town
beyond a great intervening field of com. ** At that
moment," says Armstrong, ^an Indian whistled in a
very singular manner, about thirty perches from our
front, in the foot of the cornfield." He thought they
were discovered; but one Baker, a soldier well versed
in Indian ways, told him that it was only some village
gallant calling to a young squaw. The party then
crouched in the bushes, and kept silent. The moon
sank behind the woods, and fires soon glimmered
488 PARTISAN WAR. [176flL
through the field, kindled to drive off mosquitoes by
some of the Indians who, as the night was warm,
had come out to sleep in the open air. The eastern
sky began to redden with the approach of day. Many
of the party, spent with a rough march of thirty
miles, had fallen asleep. They were now cautiously
roused; and Armstrong ordered nearly half of them
to make their way along the ridge of a bushy hill that
overlooked the town, till they came opposite to it, in
order to place it between two fires. Twenty minutes
were allowed them for the movement; but they lost
their way in the dusk, and reached their station too
late. When the time had expired, Armstrong gave
the signal to those left with him, who dashed into
the cornfield, shooting down the astonished savages
or driving them into the village, where they turned
and made desperate fight.
It was a cluster of thirty log-cabins, the principal
being that of the chief, Jacobs, which was loopholed
for musketry, and became the centre of resistance.
The fight was hot and stubborn. Armstrong ordered
the town to be set on fire, which was done, though
not without loss ; for the Delawares at this time were
commonly armed with rifles, and used them well.
Armstrong himself was hit in the shoulder. As the
flames rose and the smoke grew thick, a warrior in
one of the houses sang his death-song, and a squaw
in the same house was heard to cry and scream.
Rough voices silenced her, and then the inmates
burst out, but were instantly killed. The fire caught
1766.] KITTANNING DESTROYED. 439
the house of Jacobs, who, trying to escape through
an opening in the roof, was shot dead. Bands of
Indians were gathering beyond the river, firing from
the other bank, and even crossing to help their com-
rades ; but the assailants held to their work till the
whole place was destroyed. ** During the burning of
the houses," says Armstrong, **we were agreeably
entertained by the quick succession of charged guns,
gradually firing off as reached by the fire ; but much
more so with the vast explosion of sundry bags and
large kegs of gunpowder, wherewith almost every
house abounded; the prisoners afterwards informing
us that the Indians had frequently said they had a
sufficient stock of ammunition for ten years' war
with the English."
These prisoners were eleven men, women, and
children, captured in the border settlements, and now
delivered by their countrymen. The day was far
spent when the party withdrew, carrying their
wounded on Indian horses, and moving perforce with
extreme slowness, though expecting an attack eveiy
moment. None took place; and they reached the
settlements at last, having bought their success with
the loss of seventeen killed and thirteen wounded.^
A medal was given to each officer, not by the
1 Report of Armstrong to Governor Denny, 14 September, 1766, in
CclonkU Becorde of Pa., yii. 257, — a modest, yet rery minute
account. A List of the Names of die Persons killed, wounded, and
missing in the late Expedition against the Kittanning, Hasard, Pennsfil*
wamia Register, i. 366.
440 PARTISAN WAR. [176«.
Quaker-ridden Assembly, but by the city council of
Philadelphia.
The report of this affair made by Dumas, com-
mandant at Fort Duquesne, is worth noting. He
says that Attiqu^, the French name of Kittanning,
was attacked by "le Grdn^ral Wachinton," with three
or four hundred men on horseback; that the Indians
gave way; but that five or six Frenchmen who were
in the town held the English in check till the fugi-
tives rallied ; that Washington and his men then took
to flight, and would have been pursued but for the
loss of some barrels of gunpowder which chanced to
explode during the action. Dumas adds that several
large parties are now on the track of the enemy, and
he hopes will cut them to pieces. He then asks for
a supply of provisions and merchandise to replace
those which the Indians of Attiqu^ had lost by a
fire.^ Like other officers of the day, he would admit
nothing but successes in the department under his
command.
Vaudreuil wrote singular despatches at this time
to the minister at Versailles. He takes credit to
himself for the number of war-parties that his officers
kept always at work, and fills page after page with
details of the coups they had struck; how one
brought in two English scalps, another three, another
one, and another seven. He owns that they com-
mitted frightful cruelties, mutilating and sometimes
^ Dumas h Vaudreuif, 9 Septemhrff 1756, cited in Bigot au
6 Octobre, 1766, and in Bougainville, Journal,
1756.] THE SCOUTS OF LAKE GEORGE. 441
burning their prisoners; but he expresses no regreti
and probably felt none, since he declares that the
object of this murderous warfare was to punish the
English till they longed for peace. ^
The waters and mountains oi Lake George, and
not the western borders, were the chief centre of
partisan war. Ticonderoga was a hornet's nest,
pouring out swarms of savages to infest the highways
and byways of the wilderness. The English at Fort
William Henry, having few Indians, could not retort
in kind; but they kept their scouts and rangers in
active movement. What they most coveted was
prisoners, as sources of information. One Kennedy,
a lieutenant of provincials, with five followers, white
and red, made a march of rare audacity, passed all
the French posts, took a scalp and two prisoners on
the Richelieu, and burned a magazine of provisions
between Montreal and St. John. The party were
near famishing on the way back; and Kennedy was
brought into Fort William Henry in a state of tem-
porary insanity from starvation.^ Other provincial
officers, Peabody, Hazen, Waterbury, and Miller,
won a certain distinction in this adventurous service,
though few were so conspicuous as the blunt and
sturdy Israel Putnam. Winslow writes in October
that he has just returned from the best '^ scout " yet
made, and that, being a man of strict truth, he may
1 DSpechei de Vaudreutl, 1756.
' Minute of Lieuttnant Kennedif*$ Scout. Winslow to Loudom, 2t
StpUmber, 1756.
442 PARTISAN WAR. [1766.
be entirely trusted.^ Putnam had gone with six
followers down Lake George in a whaleboat to a
point on the east side, opposite the present village of
Hague, hid the boat, crossed northeasterly to Lake
Champlain, three miles from tlie French fort, climbed
the mountain that overlooks it, and made a complete
reconnoissance ; then approached it, chased three
Frenchmen, who escaped within the lines, climbed
the mountain again, and moving westward along the
ridge, made a minute survey of every outpost between
the fort and Lake Greorge.^ These adventures were
not always fortunate. On Hie nineteenth of Septem-
ber Captain Hodges and fifty men were ambushed a
few miles from Fort William Henry by thrice their
number of Canadians and Indians, and only six
escaped. Thus the record stands in the Letter Book
of Winslow.' By visiting the encampments of
Ticonderoga, one may learn how the blow was
struck.
After much persuasion, much feasting, and much
consumption of tobacco and brandy, four hundred
Indians, Christians from the missions and heathen
from the far West, were persuaded to go on a grand
war-party with the Canadians. Of these last there
were a hundred, — a wild crew, bedecked and be-
daubed like their Indian companions. Peridre, an
1 Wituhw to Loudon, 16 October, 1766.
* Report of a Scout to Ticonderoga, October, 1766, siffned Israel
Fatnam.
' Compare Massachusetts Archiyes, Izxvi. 81.
1756.] A WAR-PARTY. 448
officer of colony regulars, had nominal command of
the whole; and among the leaders of the Canadians
was the famous bush-fighter, Marin. Bougainville
was also of the party. In the evening of the six-
teenth they all embarked in canoes at the French
advance-post commanded by Contrecceur, near the
present steamboat-landing, passed in the gloom under
the bare steeps of Rogers Rock, paddled a few hours,
landed on the west shore, and sent scouts to recon-
noitre. These came back with their reports on the
next day, and an Indian crier called the chiefs to
council. Bougainville describes them as they stalked
gravely to the place of meeting, wrapped in colored
blankets, with lances in their hands. The accom-
plished young aide-de-camp studied his strange
companions with an interest not unmixed with dis-
gust. ^'Of all caprice," he says, ^^ Indian caprice is
the most capricious." They were insolent to the
French, made rules for them which they did not
observe themselves, and compelled the whole party
to move when and whither they pleased. Hiding the
canoes, and lying close in the forest by day, they all
held their nocturnal course .southward, by the lofty
heights of Black Mountain, and among the islets of
the Narrows, till the eighteenth. That night the
Indian scouts reported that they had seen the fires of
an encampment on the west shore; on which the
whole party advanced to the attack, an hour before
dawn, filing silently under the dark arches of the
forest, the Indians nearly naked, and streaked with
444 PARTISAN WAR. [1765.
their war-paint of vermilion and soot. When they
reached the spot, they found only the smouldering
fires of a deserted bivouac. Then there was a con-
sultation; ending, after much dispute, with the
choice by the Indians of a hundred and tea of their
most active warriors to attempt some stroke in the
neighborhood of the English fort. Marin joined
them with thirty Canadians, and they set out on
their errand; while the rest encamped to await the
result. At night the adventurers returned, raising
the death-cry and firing their guns; somewhat de-
pressed by losses they had suffered, but boasting that
they had surprised fifty-three English, and killed or
taken all but one. It was a modest and perhaps an
involuntary exaggemtion. " The very recital of the
cruelties they committed on the battlefield is hor^
rible," writes Bougainville. "The ferocity and inso-
lence of these black-souled barbarians makes one
shudder. It is an abominable kind of war. The air
one breathes is contagious of insensibility and hard-
ness." ^ This was but one of many such parties sent
out from Ticonderoga this year.
Early in September a band of New England rangers
came to Winslow's camp, with three prisoners taken
within the lines of Ticonderoga. Their captain was
Robert Rogers, of New Hampshire, — a strong, well-
knit figure, in dress and appearance more woodsman
than soldier, with a clear, bold eye, and features that
would have been good but for the ungainly propor*
1 BougainyUle, Journal.
1756.] ROBERT ROGERS. 446
tions of the nose.^ He had passed his boyhood in the
rough surroundings of a frontier village. Growing
to manhood, he engaged in some occupation which,
he says, led him to frequent joumeyings in the wil-
derness between the French and English settlements,
and gave him a good knowledge of both.^ It taught
him also to speak a little French. He does not dis-
close the nature of this mysterious employment; but
there can be little doubt that it was a smuggling
trade with Canada. His character leaves much to be
desired. He had been charged with forgery, or com-
plicity in it, seems to have had no scruple in matters
of business, and after the war was accused of treason-
able dealings with the French and Spaniards in the
West.^ He was ambitious and violent, yet able in
more ways than one, by no means uneducated, and
so skilled in woodcraft, so energetic and resolute,
that his services were invaluable. In recounting his
own adventures, his style is direct, simple, without
boasting, and to all appearance without exaggeration.
During the past summer he had raised a band of
men, chiefly New Hampshire borderers, and made a.
series of daring excursions which gave him a promi-
nent place in this hardy by-play of war. In the
spring of the present year he raised another company,
^ A large engraved portrait of him, nearly at full length, ia
before me, printed at London in 1776.
* Rogers, Joumtdi, Introduction (1766).
* Provincial Papers of New Hampshire, yi. 964. Corre s po n dence of
Gage, 1766. N, Y. Col. Docs,, yii. 990. Caleb Stark, Memoir and
Cerrtspcndence of John Stark, 386,
446 PARTISAN WAR. [175a
and was commissioned as its captain, with his brother
Richard as his fitst lieutenant, and the intrepid John
Stark as his second. In July still another company
was formed, and Richard Rogers was promoted to
command it. Before the following spring there were
seven such; and more were afterwards added, form-
ing a battalion dispersed on various service, but all
imder the orders of Robert Rogers, with the rank of
major. ^ These rangers wore a sort of woodland uni-
form, which varied in the different companies, and
were armed with smooth-bore guns, loaded with
buckshot, bullets, or sometimes both.
The best of them were commonly employed on
Lake George ; and nothing can surpass the adven-
turous hardihood of their lives. Summer and winter,
day and night, were alike to them. Embarked in
whaleboats or birch canoes, they glided under the
silent moon or in the languid glare of a breathless
August day, when islands floated in dreamy haze,
and the hot air was thick with odors of the pine ; or
in the bright October, when the jay screamed from
the woods, squirrels gathered their winter hoard, and
congregated blackbirds chattered farewell to their
summer haunts; when gay mountains basked in
light, maples dropped leaves of rustling gold, sumachs
glowed like rubies under the dark green of the
unchanging spruce, and mossed rocks with all their
painted plumage lay double in the watery mirror:
^ Rogers, JoumaU, Report of the Adjutant' General of New Hcunp-
ikire (1866), U. 168, 160.
1766.] THE EANGER8. 447
that festal evening of the year, when jocund Nature
disrobes heiself, to wake again refreshed in the joy
of her undying spring. Or, in the tomb-like silence
of the winter forest, with breath frozen on his beard,
the ranger strode on snow-shoes over the spotless
drifts; and, like Diirer's knight, a ghastly death
stalked ever at his side. There were those among
them for whom this stem life had a fascination
that made all other existence tame.
Rogers and his men had been in active movement
since midwinter. In January they skated down
Lake George, passed Ticonderoga, hid themselves by
the forest road between that post and Crown Point,
intercepted two sledges loaded with provisions, and
carried the drivers to Fort William Henry. In
February they climbed a hill near Crown Point and
made a plan of the works ; then lay in ambush by the
road from the fort to the neighboring village, captured
a prisoner, burned houses and bams, killed fifty
cattle, and returned without loss. At the end of the
month they went again to Crown Point, burned more
houses and bams, and reconnoitred Ticonderoga on
the way back. Such excursions were repeated
throughout the spring and summer. The reconnois-
sance of Ticonderoga and the catching of prisoners
there for the sake of information were always capital
objects. The valley, four miles in extent, that lay
between the foot of Lake George and the French fort,
was at this time guarded by four distinct outposts or
fortified camps. Watched as it was at all points, and
448 PARTISAN WAR. [176«.
ranged incessantly by Indians in the employ of
France, Rogers and his men knew every yard of the
ground. On a morning in May he lay in ambush
with eleven followers on a path between the fort and
the nearest camp. A large body of soldiers passed ;
the rangers counted a hundred and eighteen, and lay
close in their hiding-place. Soon after came a party
of twenty-two. They fired on them, killed six,
captured one, and escaped with him to Fort William
Henry. In October Rogers was passing with twenty
men in two whaleboats through the seeming solitude
of the Narrows when a voice called to them out of
the woods It was that of Captain Shepherd, of the
New Hampshire regiment, who had been captured
two months before, and had lately made his escape.
He told them that the French had the fullest infor-
mation of the numbers and movements of the Eng-
lish; that letters often reached them from within the
English lines; and that Lydius, a Dutch trader at
Albany, was their principal correspondent.^ Arriv-
ing at Ticonderoga, Rogers cautiously approached
the fort, till, about noon, he saw a sentinel on the
road leading thence to the woods. Followed by five
of his men, he walked directly towards him. The
man challenged, and Rogers answered in French.
Perplexed for a moment^ the soldier suffered him to
1 Litter and Order Books of Winslow, ** One Lydiaai . . . whom
we luspect for a French spj ; he lives better than anybody, without
any visible means, and his daughters have had often presents from
BCr. VaudreuiL" — Loudtm (to Fox f ), 19 Au^utt, 1766.
1756.] EXPLOITS OF ROGERS. 449
approach; till, seeing his mistake, he called out in
amazement^ "G^t ites vousV^ "Rogers," was the
answer; and the sentinel was seized, led in hot haste
to the boats, and carried to the English fort, where
he gave important information.
An exploit of Rogers towards midsummer greatly
perplexed the French. He embarked at the end of
June with fifty men in five whaleboats, made light
and strong, expressly for this service, rowed about
ten miles down Lake George, landed on the east side,
carried the boats six miles over a gorge of the moun-
tains, launched them again in South Bay, and rowed
down the narrow prolongation of Lake Champlain
under cover of darkness. At dawn they were within
six miles of Ticonderoga. They landed, hid their
boats, and lay close all day. Embarking again in
the evening, they rowed with mufiBied oars imder the
shadow of the eastern shore, and passed so close to
the French fort that they heard the voices of the
sentinels calling the watchword. In the morning
they had left it five miles behind. Again they hid
in the woods; and from their lurking-place saw
bateaux passing, some northward, and some south-
ward, along the narrow lake. Crown Point was ten
or twelve miles farther on. They tried to pass it
after nightfall, but the sky was too clear and the stais
too bright; and as they lay hidden the next day,
nearly a hundred boats passed before them on the
way to Ticonderoga. Some other boats which
appeared about noon landed near them, and they
VOL. I. — 29
460 PARTISAN WAR. [176a
watched the soldiers at dinner, within a musket-fihot
of their lurking-place. The next night was more
favorable. They embarked at nine in the evening,
passed Crown Point unseen, and hid themselves as
before, ten miles below. It was the seventh of July.
Thirty boats and a schooner passed them, returning
towards Canada. On the next night they rowed
fifteen miles farther, and then sent men to recon-
noitre, who reported a schooner at anchor about a
mile off. They were preparing to board her, when
two sloops appeared, coming up the lake at but a
short distance from the land. They gave them a
volley, and called on them to surrender; but the
crews put off in boats and made for the opposite
shore. They followed and seized them. Out of
twelve men their fire had killed three and wounded
two, one of whom, sajrs Rogers in his report, ^* could
not march, therefore we put an end to him, to pre-
vent discovery."^ They sank the vessels, which
were laden with wine, brandy, and flour, hid their
boats on the west shore, and returned on foot with
their prisoners.^
Some weeks after, Rogers returned to the place
where he had left the boats, embarked in them,
1 Beport of Rogers to Sir William Johnson, July, 1766. This inci-
dent ii luppresied in the printed Journals, which merely ulj that
the man " loon died."
« Rogers, Journals, 20. Shirley to Cox, 26 July, 1766. "Thia
afternoon Capt. Rogers came down with 4 scalps and 8 prisoners
which he took on Lake Champlain, between 20 and 90 miles
beyond Crown l^oiat." ^ Surgeon Williams to his Wife, 16 July,
1766.
176(5.] PERPLEXITY OF THE FRENCH. 451
reconnoitred the lake nearly to St. John, hid them
again eight miles north of Crown Point, took three
prisoners near that post, and carried them to Fort
William Henry. In the next month the French
found several English boats in a small cove north of
Crown Point. Bougainville propounds five different
hypotheses to account for their being there; and
exploring parties were sent out in the vain attempt
to find some water passage by which they could
have reached the spot without passing under the
guns of two French forts.i
The French, on their side, still kept their war-
parties in motion, and Vaudreuil faithfully chronicled
in his despatches every English scalp they brought
in. He believed in Indians, and sent them to Ticon-
deroga in numbers that were sometimes embarrass-
ing. Even Pottawattamies from Lake Michigan were
prowling about Winslow's camp and silently killing
his sentinels with arrows, while their ^^ medicine
men " remained at Ticonderoga practising sorcery
and divination to aid the warriors or learn how it
fared with them. Bougainville writes in his Journal
on the fifteenth of October: "Yesterday the old
Pottawattamies who have stayed here * made medi-
cine ' to get news of their brethren. The lodge
trembled, the sorcerer sweated drops of blood, and
the devil came at last and told him that the warriors
would come back with scalps and prisoners. A
sorcerer in the medicine lodge is exactly like the
^ Bougainville, Joumo/.
452 PARTISAN WAR. [1766.
Pythoness on the tripod or the witch Canidia invok-
ing the shades." The diviner was not wholly at
fault. Three days after, the warriors came back
with a prisoner.^
Till November, the hostile forces continued to
watch each other from the opposite ends of Lake
George. Loudon repeated his orders to Winslow to
keep the defensive, and wrote sarcastically to the
colonial minister: "I think I shall be able to prevent
the provincials doing anything very rash, without
their having it in their power to talk in the language
of this country that they could have taken all Canada
if they had not been prevented by the King's ser-
vants." Winslow tried to console himself for the
failure of the campaign, and wrote in his odd English
to Shirley: "Am sorry that this year's performance
has not succeeded as was intended; have only to say
I pushed things to the utmost of my power to have
been sooner in motion, which was the only thing that
should have carried us to Crown Point; and though
I am sensible that we are doing our duty in acting on
the defensive, yet it makes no eclate [sic]^ and answers
to little purpose in the eyes of my constituents.'*
On the first of the month the French began to
move off towards Canada, and before many days
Ticonderoga was left in the keeping of five or six
companies.^ Winslow's men followed their example.
^ This kind of divination was practised bj Algonquin tribet
from the earliest times. See "Pioneers of France in the New
World," 361.
* Bougainville, Journal. Malartic, Jowrnal.
1766,1757.] QUAKTERING TROOPS 453
Major Eyre, with four hundred regulars, took pos-
session of Fort William Henry, and the provincials
marched for home, their ranks thinned by camp
diseases and small-pox.^ In Canada the regulars
were quartered on the inhabitants, who took the
infliction as a matter of course. In the English
provinces the question was not so simple. Most of
the British troops were assigned to Philadelphia,
New York, and Boston ; and Loudon demanded free
quarters for them, according to usage then prevailing
in England during war. Nor was the demand in
itself imreasonable, seeing that the troops were sent
over to fight the battles of the colonies. In Phila^
delphia lodgings were given them in the public-
houses, which, however, could not hold them all. A
long dispute followed between the governor, who
seconded Loudon's demand, and the Assembly, dur-
ing which about half the soldiers lay on straw in
outhouses and sheds till near midwinter, many sick-
ening, and some dying from exposure. Loudon
grew furious, and threatened, if shelter were not
provided, to send Webb with another regiment and
billet the whole on the inhabitants; on which the
Assembly yielded, and quarters were found. ^
In New York the privates were quartered in bar-
^ Letter and Order Books of Winslow, Witulow to Halifax, SO
December, 1756.
* Loudon to Denny, 28 October, 1756. Colonial Records of Pa., vil
858-380. Loudon to Pitt, 10 March, 1757. Notice of Colonel Bouquet^
in Pennsylvania Magazine, iii. 124. The Conduct of a NoUe Com
wuuukr in America impartially reviewed (1758).
454 PARTISAN WAR. [1756,1757.
racks, but the officers were left to find lodging for
themselves. Loudon demanded that provision should
be made for them also. The city council hesitated,
afraid of incensing the people if they complied.
Cruger, the mayor, came to remonstrate. ^^God
damn my blood 1" replied the earl; "if you do not
billet my officers upon free quarters this day, I Ul
order here all the troops in North America, and
billet them mjrself upon this city. " Being no respecter
of persons, at least in the provinces, he began with
Oliver Delancey, brother of the late acting governor,
and sent six soldiers to lodge under his roof.
Delancey swore at the unwelcome guests, on which
Loudon sent him six more. A subscription was then
raised among the citizens, and the required quarters
were provided.^ In Boston there was for the present
less trouble. The troops were lodged in the bar-
racks of Castle William, and furnished with blankets,
cooking utensils, and other necessaries.^
Major Eyre and his soldiers, in their wilderness
exile by the borders of Lake George, whiled the winter
away with few other excitements than the evening
howl of wolves from the frozen mountains, or some
nocturnal savage shooting at a sentinel from behind
a stump on the moonlit fields of snow. A livelier
incident at last broke the monotony of their lives.
1 Smith, Hist, of N. Y., Part II. 242. Willtam Carry to Johnwn,
15 January, 1757, in Stone, Life of Sir Wiliiam Johnton, ii. 24, nofe.
Loudon to Hardy, 21 November, 1766.
* Maasachusetti Archiyes^ Ixxvi. 153
1757.] SCOUTING PARTY. 455
In the middle of January Rogers came with his
rangers from Fort Edward, bound on a scouting party
towards Crown Point. They spent two days at Fort
William Henry in making snow-shoes and other
preparation, and set out on the seventeenth. Cap-
tain Spikeman was second in command, with Lieu-
tenants Stark and Kennedy, several other subalterns,
and two gentlemen volunteers enamoured of adven-
ture. They marched down the frozen lake and
encamped at the Narrows. Some of them, unac-
customed to snow-shoes, had become unfit for travel,
and were sent back, thus reducing the number to
seventy-four. In the morning they marched again,
by icicled rocks and icebound waterfalls, mountains
gray with naked woods and fir-trees bowed down
with snow. On the nineteenth they reached the
west shore, about four miles south of Rogers Rock,
marched west of north eight miles, and bivouacked
among the mountains. On the next morning they
changed their course, marched east of north all day,
passed Ticonderoga undiscovered, and stopped at
night some five miles beyond it. The weather was
changing, and rain was coming on. They scraped
away the snow with their snow-shoes, piled it in a
bank around them, made beds of spruce-boughs, built
fires, and lay down to sleep, while the sentinels kept
watch in the outer gloom. In the morning there was
a drizzling rain, and the softened snow stuck to their
snow-shoes. They marched eastward three miles
through the dripping forest^ till they reached the
456 PARTISAN WAR. [1757.
banks of Lake Champlain, near what is now called
Five Mile Point, and presently saw a sledge, drawn
by horses, moving on the ice from Ticonderoga
towards Crown Point. Rogers sent Stark along the
shore to the left to head it off, while he with another
party, covered by the woods, moved in the opposite
direction to stop its retreat. He soon saw eight or
ten more sledges following the first, and sent a mes-
senger to prevent Stark from showing himself too
soon; but Stark was already on the ice. All the
sledges turned back in hot haste. The rangers ran
in pursuit and captured three of them, with seven
men and six horses, while the rest escaped to Ticon-
deroga. The prisoners, being separately examined,
told an ominous tale. There were three hundred and
fifty regulars at Ticonderoga; two hundred Cana-
dians and forty-five Indians had lately arrived there,
and more Indians were expected that evening, — all
destined to waylay the communications between the
English forts, and all prepared to march at a moment's
notice. The rangers were now in great peril. The
fugitives would give warning of their presence, and
the French and Indians, in overwhelming force,
would no doubt cut off their retreat.
Rogers at once ordered his men to return to their
last night's encampment, rekindle the fires, and dry
their guns, which were wet by the rain of the morning.
Then they marched southward in single file through
the snow-encumbered forest, Rogers and Kennedy in
the front, Spikeman in the centre, and Stark in the
1757.] A DESPERATE BUSH-FIGHT. 467
rear. In this order they moved on over broken and
difficult ground till two in the afternoon, when they
came upon a valley, or hollow, scarcely a musket-shot
wide, which ran across their line of march, and, like
all the rest of the country, was buried in thick
woods. The front of the line had descended the
first hill, and was mounting that on the farther side,
when the foremost men heard a low clicking soimd,
like the cocking of a great number of guns; and in
an instant a furious volley blazed out of the bushes
on the ridge above them. Kennedy was killed out-
right, as also was Gardner, one of the volunteers.
Rogers was grazed in the head by a bullet, and othere
were disabled or hurt. The rest returned the fire,
while a swarm of French and Indians rushed upon
them from the ridge and the slopes on either hand,
killing several more, Spikeman among the rest, and
capturing others. The rangers fell back across the
hollow and regained the hill they had just descended.
S^rk with the rear, who were at the top when the
fray began, now kept the assailants in check by a
brisk fire till their comrades joined them. Then the
whole party, spreading themselves among the trees
that covered the declivity, stubbornly held their
ground and beat back the French in repeated attempts
to dislodge them. As the assailants were more than
two to one, what Rogers had most to dread was a
movement to outflank him and get into his rear.
This they tried twice, and were twice repulsed by a
party held in reserve for the purpose. The fight
468 PARTISAN WAR. [1767.
lasted several hours, during which there was much
talk between the combatants. The French called
out that it was a pity so many brave men should be
lost, that large reinforcements were expected every
moment, and that the rangers would then be cut to
pieces without mercy; whereas if they surrendered
at once they should be treated with the utmost kind-
ness. They called to Rogers by name, and expressed
great esteem for him. Neither threats nor promises
had any effect, and the firing went on till darkness
stopped it. Towards evening Rogers was shot
through the wrist; and one of the men, John Shute,
used to tell in his old age how he saw another ranger
trying to bind the captain's wound with the ribbon
of his own queue.
As Ticonderoga was but three miles off, it was
destruction to stay where they were; and they with-
drew under cover of night, reduced to forty-eight
effective and six wounded men. Fourteen had been
killed, and six captured. Those that were left
reached Lake George in the morning, and Stark,
with two followers, pushed on in advance to bring a
sledge for the wounded. The rest made their way
to the Narrows, where they encamped, and presently
descried a small dark object on the ice far behind
them. It proved to be one of their own number,
Sergeant Joshua Martin, who had received a severe
wound in the fight, and was left for dead; but by
desperate efforts had followed on their tracks, and
was now brought to camp in a state of exhaustion.
J757.] DEFEAT OF RANGERS. 469
He recovered, and lived to an advanced age. The
sledge sent by Stark came in the morning, and the
whole party soon reached the fort. Abercrombie, on
hearing of the affair, sent them a letter of thanks
for gallant conduct.
Rogers reckons the number of his assailants at
about two hundred and fifty in all. Vaudreuil says
that they consisted of eighty-nine regulars and
ninety Canadians and Indians. With his usual
boastful exaggeration, he declares that forty English
were left dead on the field, and that only three
reached Fort William Henry alive. He sa3rs that
the fight was extremely hot and obstinate, and admits
that the French lost thirty-seven killed and wounded.
Rogers makes the number much greater. That it
was considerable is certain, as Lusignan, com-
mandant at Ticonderoga, wrote immediately for
reinforcements. ^
1 Rogers, Journals, 38-44. Caleb Stark, Memoir and Correspond-
ence of John Stark, 18, 412. Return of Killed, Wounded, and Missing
in the Action near Ticonderoga, January, 1757 ; aU tlie names are here
given. James Abercrombie, aide-de-camp to his uncle. General
Abercrombie, wrote to Rogers from Albany: "You cannot imagine
how all ranks of people here are pleased with your conduct and
your men's behavior."
The accounts of the French writers differ from each other, but
agree in placing the English force at from seventy to eighty, and
their own much higher. The principal report is that of Vaudreuil
au Ministre, 19 AvrU, 1767 (his second letter of this date). Bougain-
ville, Montcalm, Malartic, and Montreuil all speak of the affair,
placing the English loss much higher than is shown by the returns.
The story, repeated in most of the French narratives, that only
three of the rangers reached Fort William Henry, seems to have
arisen from the fact that Stark with two men went thither ip
460 PARTISAN WAR. p767
The effects of his wound and an attack of small-
pox kept Rogers quiet for a time. Meanwhile the
winter dragged slowly away, and the ice of Lake
George, cracking with change of temperature, uttered
its sti*ange cry of agony, heralding that dismal season
when winter begins to relax ite gripe, but spring still
holds aloof; when the sap stirs in the sugar-maples,
but the buds refuse to swell, and even the catkins of
the willows will not burst their brown integuments ;
when the forest is patched with snow, though on its
sunny slopes one hears in the stillness the whisper of
trickling waters that ooze from the half-thawed soU
and saturated beds of f aUen leaves ; when clouds hang
low on the darkened mountains, and cold mists
entangle themselves in the tops of the pines ; now a
dull rain, now a sharp morning frost, and now a
storm of snow powdering the waste, and wrapping
it again in the pall of winter.
In this cheerless season, on St. Patrick's Day, the
seventeenth of March, the Irish soldiers who formed
a part of the garrison of Fort William Henry were
paying homage to their patron saint in libations of
heretic rum, the product of New England stills ; and
it is said that John Stark's rangers forgot theological
differences in their zeal to share the festivity. The
story adds that they were restrained by their com-
mander, and that their enforced sobriety proved the
saving of the fort. This may be doubted; for with-
advance of the rest. As regards the antecedents of the combat, the
French and English accounts agree.
1757.] VAUBREUIL'S WAIUPAETY. 461
out counting the English soldiers of the garrison who
had no special call to be drunk that day, the fort was
in no danger till twenty-four hours after, when the
revellers had had time to rally from their pious
carouse. Whether rangers or British soldiers, it is
certain that watchmen were on the alert during the
night between the eighteenth and nineteenth, and
that towards one in the morning they heard a sound
of axes far down the lake, followed by the faint glow
of a distant fire. The inference was plain, that an
enemy was there, and that the necessity of warming
himself had overcome his caution. Then all was still
for some two hours, when, listening in the pitchy
darkness, the watchers heard the footsteps of a great
body of men approaching on the ice, which at the
time was bare of snow. The garrison were at their
posts, and all the cannon on the side towards the lake
vomited grape and round-shot in the direction of the
sound, which thereafter was heard no more.
Those who made it were a detachment, called by
Vaudreuil an army, sent by him to seize the English
fort. Shirley had planned a similar stroke against
Ticonderoga a year before ; but the provincial levies
had come in so slowly, and the ice had broken up so
soon, that the scheme was abandoned. Vaudreuil
was more fortunate. The whole force, regulars,
Canadians, and Indians, was ready to his hand. No
pains were spared in equipping them. Overcoats,
blankets, bearskins to sleep on, tarpaulins to sleep
under, spare moccasons, spare mittens, kettles, axes^
462 PARTISAN WAR. [1757.
needles, awls, flint and steel, and many miscellaneous
articles were provided, to be dragged by the men on
light Indian sledges, along with provisions for twelve
days. The cost of the expedition is set at a million
francs, answering to more than as many dollars of the
present time. To the disgust of the officers from
France, the governor named his brother Rigaud for
the chief command; and before the end of February
the whole party was on its march along the ice of
Lake Champlain. They rested nearly a week at
Ticonderoga, where no less than three hundred short
scaling-ladders, so constructed that two or more could
be joined in one, had been made for them ; and here,
too, they received a reinforcement, which raised their
number to sixteen himdred. Then, marching three
days along Lake George, they neared the fort on the
evening of the eighteenth, and prepared for a general
assault before daybreak.
The garrison, including rangers, consisted of three
hundred and forty-six effective men.i The fort was
not strong, and a resolute assault by numbers so
superior must, it seems, have overpowered the
defenders; but the Canadians and Indians who com-
posed most of the attacking force were not suited for
such work; and, disappointed in his hope of a sur-
prise, Rigaud withdrew them at daybreak, after tiy-
^ Strength of the GarrtMon of Fort William Henry when the Enemy
came before it, enclosed in the letter of Major Eyre to Loudon, 26
March, Vlbl. There were also one hundred and twent7-eighl
intaiidf.
1767.] RIGAUiyS ENTERPRISE. 468
ing in vain to bum the buildings outside. A few
hours after, the whole body reappeared, filing off to
surround the fort, on which they kept up a brisk but
harmless fire of musketry. In the night they were
heard again on the ice, approaching as if for an
assault; and the cannon, firing towards the sound,
again drove them back. There was silence for a
while, till tongues of flame lighted up the gloom, and
two sloops, ice-bound in the lake, and a large number
of bateaux on the shore were seen to be on fire. A
party sallied to save them ; but it was too late. In
the morning they were all consumed, and the enemy
had yanished.
It was Sunday, the twentieth. Everything was
quiet till noon, when the French filed out of the
woods and marched across the ice in procession,
ostentatiously carrying their scaling-ladders, and
showing themselves to the best effect. They stopped
at a safe distance, fronting towards the fort, and
several of them advanced, waving a red flag. An
officer with a few men went to meet them, and
returned bringing Le Mercier, chief of the Canadian
artillery, who, being led blindfold into the fort,
announced himself as bearer of a message from
Rigaud. He was conducted to the room of Major
Eyre, where all the British officers were assembled;
and, after mutual compliments, he invited them to
give up the place peaceably, promising the most
favorable terms, and threatening a general assault and
massacre in case of refusal. Eyre said that he should
464 PARTISAN WAR. [1757.
defend himself to the last; and the envoy, again
blindfolded, was led back to whence he came.
The whole French force now advanced as if to
storm the works, and the garrison prepared to receive
them. Nothing came of it but a fusillade, to which
the British made no reply. At night the French
were heard advancing again, and each man nerved
himself for the crisis. The real attack, however,
was not against the fort, but against the buildings
outside, which consisted of several storehouses, a
hospital, a saw-mill, and the huts of the rang^ers,
besides a sloop on the stocks and piles of planks and
cord-wood. Covered by the night, the assailants
crept up with fagots of resinous sticks, placed them
against the farther side of the buildings, kindled
them, and escaped before the flame rose; while the
garrison, straining their eare in the thick darkness,
fired wherever they heard a sound. Before morning
all around them was in a blaze, and they had much
ado to save the fort barracks from the shower of
burning cinders. At ten o'clock the fires had sub-
sided, and a thick fall of snow began, filling the air
with a restless chaos of large moist flakes. This
lasted all day and all the next night, till the ground
and the ice were covered to a depth of three feet and
more. The French lay close in their camps till a
little before dawn on Tuesday morning, when twenty
volunteers from the regulars made a bold attempt to
bum the sloop on the stocks, with several storehouses
and other structures, and several hundred scows and
1767.] RIGAUD'S RETREAT. 465
whaleboats which had thus far escaped. They were
only in part successful; but they fired the sloop and
some buildings near it, and stood far out on the ice
watching the flaming vessel, a superb bonfire amid
the wilderness of snow. The spectacle cost the
volunteers a fourth of their number killed and
wounded.
On Wednesday morning the sun rose bright on a
scene of wintry splendor, and the frozen lake was
dotted with Rigaud's retreating followers toiling
towards Canada on snow-shoes. Before they reached
it many of them were Uinded for a while by the
insufferable glare, and their comrades led them home-
wards by the hand.^
1 Eyre to Loudon, 24 JforcA, 1767. Ibid^ 26 March, enclosed in
London's despatch of 26 April, 1767. Mettage of Rigaud to Major
Eyre, 20 March, 1767. Letter from Fort William Betury, 26 March,
1767, in BottoM Gazette, No, 106, and Boeton Evening Poet, iVo. 1,12S.
Abitract of Lettere from Albany, in Botton News Letter, No, 2,860.
Caleb Stark, Memoir and Correspondence of John Stea-k, 22, a cnriont
mixture of truth and error. Relation de la Campagne sur U Lae SL
Sacrement pendant VHiver^ 1767. Bongainrille, Journal, Malartic,
Journal, Montcalm au Ministre, 24 Avril, 1767. Montreuil au Ministre,
28 AvrU, 1767. Montcalm h sa Mkre, 1 AvrU, 1767. MAnoires Mr k
Canada, 1740-1760.
The French loss in killed and wonnded is set bj Montcalm at
eleren. That of the English was seven, slightly wounded, chiefly
in sorties. Thej took three prisoners. Stark was touched by a
bullet, for the only time in his adventurous Ufa.
vol.. L— 80
CHAPTER XIV.
1767-
MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL.
Tbx Seat of Wa^. — Social Life at Moktbbal. — Famiuaji
CORBSSPONDBKOB OF MONTCALM : HIS EmPLOTMBNTS ; HIB Im-
PBB8BION8 OF CaNADA ; HIS HOSPITALITIBS. — MlSUNDBRSTAVI)-
nros wim thb Gotbbnob.— Chabagtbb of Vaudbbuil: hu
AOCUSATIONS. — FbEITCHMEN and CANADLlira. -» FoiBLBS OF
MoKTOALM. — The Opbnino Campaion. — Doubts aitd Sut-
PBMSB. — Loudon's Flan: his Chabactbb. — Fatal Dblats.
-^Abobtiyb Attempt against Louisboubo. — Disastbb to
thb Bbitibh Flbbt.
Spring came at last, and the Dutch burghers of
Albany heard, faint from the far height, the clamor
of the wild fowl, streaming in long files northwaxd to
their summer home. As the aerial travellers winged
their way, the seat of war lay spread beneath them
like a map. First the blue Hudson, slumbering
among its forests, with the forts along its banks,
Half-Moon, Stillwater, Saratoga, and the geometric
lines and earthen mounds of Fort Edward. Then a
broad belt of dingy evergreen; and beyond, released
from wintry fetters, the glistening breast of Lake
George, with Fort William Henry at its side, amid
chaned ruins and a desolation of prostrate forests.
1766, 1767.] MONTREAL. 461
Hence the lake stretched northward, like some broad
river, trenched between mountain ranges still leafless
and graj. Then they looked down on Ticonderoga,
with the flag of the Bourbons, like a flickering white
speck, waving on its ramparts; and next on Crown
Point with its tower of stone. Lake Champlain now
spread before them, widening as they flew: on the
left, the mountain wilderness of the Adirondacks,
like a stormy sea congealed ; on the right, the long
procession of the Green Mountains; and, far beyond,
on the dim verge of the eastern sky, the White
Mountains throned in savage solitude. They passed
over the bastioned square of Fort St. John, Fort
Ghambly guarding the rapids of the Richelieu, and
the broad belt of the St* Lawrence, with Montreal
seated on its bank. Here we leave them, to build
their nests and hatch their brood among the fens
of the lonely North.
Montreal, the military heart of Canada, was in the
past winter its social centre also, where were gathered
conspicuous representatives both of Old France and
of New; not men only, but women. It was a spark-
ling fragment of the reign of Louis XV. dropped
into the American wilderness. Montcalm was here
with his staff and his chief officers, now pondering
schemes of war, and now turning in thought to his
beloved Ch&teau of Candiac, his mother, children,
and wife, to whom he sent letters with every oppor-
tunity. To his wife he writes : ** Think of me affec-
tionately ; give love to my girls. I hope next year I
468 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [175«, 1757-
may be with you all. I love you tenderly, dearest.'^
He says that he has sent her a packet of marten-
skins for a muff, ^^and another time I shall send some
to our daughter; but I should like better to bring
them myself." Of this eldest daughter he writes in
reply to a letter of domestic news from Madame de
Montcalm: ^The new gown with blonde trimmings
must be becoming, for she is pretty." Again,
^^ There is not an hour in the day when I do not
think of you, my mother, and my children." He had
the tastes of a coimtry gentleman, and was eager to
know all that was passing on his estate. Before
leaving home he had. set up a mill to grind olives for
oil, and was well pleased to hear of its prosperity.
^It seems to be a good thing, which pleases me very
much. Bougainville and I talk a great deal about
the oil -mill." Some time after, when the King sent
him the coveted decoration of the cordon rawge^ he
informed Madame de Montcalm of the honor done
him, and added, ^^But I think I am better pleased
with what you tell me of the success of my oil-mill."
To his mother he writes of his absorbing occupa-
tions, and sajrs, ^^Tou can tell my dearest that I
have no time to occupy myself with the ladies, even
if I wished to." Nevertheless he now and then found
leisure for some little solace in his banishment; for
he writes to Bourlamaque, whom he had left at
Quebec, after a visit which he had himself made
there early in the winter: ^^I am glad you sometimes
9peak of me to the three ladies in the Rue du Parloir;
1766, 1767.] FESTIVITIEa 469
and I am flattered by their remembrance, especially
by that of one of them, in whom I find at certain
moments too much wit and too many charms for my
tranquillity." These ladies of the Rue du Parloir
are several times mentioned in his familiar corre-
spondence with Bourlamaque.
His station obliged him to maintain a high standard
of living, to his great financial detriment, for Cana-
dian prices were inordinate. ^^ I must live creditably,
and so I do; sixteen persons at table every day.
Once a fortnight I dine with the govemor-gene«d
and with the Chevalier de L^vis, who lives well too.
He has given three grand balls. As for me, up to
Lent I gave, besides dinners, great suppers, with
ladies, three times a week. They lasted till two in
the morning ; and then there was dancing, to which
company came iminvited, but sure of a welcome from
those who had been at supper. It is very expensive,
not very amusing, and often tedious. At Quebec,
where we spent a month, I gave receptions or parties,
often at the Intendant's house. I like my gallant
Chevalier de L^vis very much. Bourlamaque was a
good choice ; he is steady and cool, with good parts.
Bougainville has talent, a warm head, and warm
heart; he will ripen in time. Write to Madame
Cornier that I like her husband ; he is perfectly well,
and as impatient for peace as I am. Love to my
daughters, and all affection and respect to my
mother. I live only in the hope of joining you aU
again. Nevertheless, Montreal is as good a place as
470 MONTCALM AND VAUDEEUIL. [1766, 1767k
Alais even in time of peace, and better now, because
the Oovemment is here ; for the Marquis de Vaudreuil,
like me, spent only a month at Quebec. As for
Quebec, it is as good as the best cities of France,
except ten or so. Clear sky, bright sun; neither
spring nor autumn, only summer and winter. July,
August, and September, hot as in Languedoc: winter
insupportable; one must keep always indoors. The
ladies spiritudUs^ galanUs^ dhotes. OamUing at
Quebec, dancing and conversation at Montreal. My
friends the Indians, who are often unbearable, and
whom I treat with perfect tranquillity and patience,
are fond of me. If I were not a sort of general,
though very subordinate to the governor, I could
gossip about the plans of the campaign, which it is
likely will begin on the tenth or fifteenth of May. I
worked at the plan of the last affair [JBigaud^s
expedition to Fort William Henry]^ which might have
turned out better, though good as it was. I wanted
only eight hundred men. If I had had my way.
Monsieur de L^vis or Monsieur de Bougainville
would have had charge of it. However, the thing
was all right, and in good hands. The Governor,
who is extremely civil to me, gave it to lus brother;
he thought him more used to winter marches.
Adieu, my heart; I adore and love you!"
To meet his manifold social needs, he sends to his
wife orders for prunes, olives, anchovies, muscat
wine, capers, sausages, confectionery, cloth for
liveries, and many other such items; also for scent-
1766, 1767.] FESTIVITIEa 471
bags of two kinds, and perfumed pomatum foi
presents; closing in postscript with an injunction
not to forget a dozen pint-bottles of English lavender.
Some months after, he writes to Madame de Saint-
V^ran: "I have got everything that was sent me
from Montpellier except the sausages. I have lost a
third of what was sent from Bordeaux. The English
captured it on board the ship called *" La Superbe; '
and I have reason to fear that everything sent from
Paris is lost on board ' La Libert^.* I am running
into debt here. Pshaw! I must live. I do not
worry myself. Best love to you, my mother."
When Rigaud was about to march with his detach*
ment against Fort William Henry, Montcalm went
over to La Prairie to see them. "I reviewed them,"
he writes to Bourlamaque, ^^and gave the officers a
dinner, which, if anybody else had given it, I should
have said was a grand affair. There were two tables,
for thirty-six persons in all. On Wednesday there
was an Assembly at Madame Varin's; on Friday the
Chevalier de L^vis gave a ball. He invited sixty-
five ladies, and got only thirty, with a great crowd
of men. Rooms well lighted, excellent order, excel-
lent service, plenty of refreshments of every sort all
through the night; and the company stayed till seven
in the morning. As for me, I went to bed early. I
had had that day eight ladies at a supper given to
Madame Varin. To-morrow I shall have half-a-
dozen at another supper, given to I don't know
whom, but incline to think it will be La Roche
472 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [176«, 17ST.
Beauoour. The gallant Chevalier 10 to gire ua still
another ball. ''
Lent put a check on these festivitiefl. ^To*
morrow," he tells Bourlamaque, ^*I shall throw
myself into devotion with might and main (it corps
perdu). It will be easier for me to detach myself
from the world and turn heavenward here at Mont-
real than it would be at Quebec." And, some time
after, ^^Bougainville spent Monday delightfully at
Isle Ste. H^ldne, and Tuesday devoutly with the
Sulpitian Fathers at the Mountain. I was there
myself at four o'clock, and did them the civility to
sup in their refectory at a quarter before six."
In May there was a complete revival of social
pleasures, and Montcalm wrote to Bourlamaque:
** Madame de Beaubassin's supper was very gay.
There were toasts to the Rue du Parloir and to the
General. To-day I must give a dinner to Madame
de Saint-Ours, which will be a little more serious.
P^an is gone to establish himself at La Chine, and
will come back with La Barolon, who goes thither
with a husband of hers, bound to the Ohio with
Villejoin and Louvigny. The Chevalier de L^vis
amuses himself very much here. He and his friends
spend all their time with Madame de Lenisse."
Under these gayeties and gallantries there were
bitter heart-burnings. Montcalm hints at some of
them in a letter to Bourlamaque, written at the time
of the expedition to Fort William Heniy, which, in
the words of Montcalm, who would have preferred
1756, 1757.] A BREACH REPAIREDl 478
another commander, the goyemor had ordered to
march ''under the banners of brother Rigaud.**
"After he got my letter on Sunday evening," says
the disappointed general, ^^ Monsieur de Vaudreuil
sent me his secretary with the instructions he had
given his brother,** which he had hitherto withheld.
" This gave rise after dinner to a long conversation
with him; and I hope for the good of the service that
his future conduct will prove the truth of his words.
I spoke to him with frankness and firmness of the
necessity I was under of commimicating to him my
reflections ; but I did not name any of the persons
who, to gain his good graces, busy themselves with
destroying his confidence in me. I told him that he
would alwajs find me disposed to aid in measures
tending to our success, even should his views, which
always ought to prevail, be different from mine ; biit
that I dared flatter myself that he would hencefor-
ward communicate his plans to me sooner; for, though
his knowledge of the country gave greater weight to
his opinions, he might rest satisfied that I should
second him in methods and details. This etplanation
passed off becomingly enough, and ended witJi a
proposal to dine on a moose's nose [an esHmed morsel]
the day after to-morrow. I bum your letters. Mon-
sieur, and I beg you to do the same with mine, after
making a note of anything you may want to keep/'
But Bourlamaque kept all the letters, and bound
them in a volume, which still exists.^
1 The preceding extract! are from LettrtM lU Monicalm k Matktmi
de Saint'V&ant §a Mhn, M h Madame de Montcalmi ta Femm4, 176<|
474 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1766, 1767
Montcalm was not at this time fully aware of the
feeling of Vandreuil towards him. The touchy
egotism of the governor and his jealous attachment
to the colony led him to claim for himself and the
Canadians the merit of every achievement and to
deny it to the French troops and their general.
Before the capture of Oswego was known, he wrote
to the naval minister that Montcalm would never
have dared attack that place if he had not encouraged
him and answered his timid objections.^ ^^I am con-
fident that I shall reduce it,** he adds; ^^my expedi-
tion is sure to succeed if Monsieur de Montcalm
follows the directions I have given him.'* When
the good news came he immediately wrote again,
declaring that the victory was due to his brother
Rigaud and the Canadians, who, he says, had been
ill-used by the general, and not allowed either to
enter the fort or share the plunder, any more than the
Indians, who were so angry at the treatment they
had met that he had great difficulty in appeasing
them. He hints that the success was generally
ascribed to him. ^ There has been a great deal of
talk here; but I will not do myself the honor of
repeating it to you, especially as it relates to myself.
I know how to do violence to my self-love. The
measures I took assured our victory, in spite of oppo-
sition. If I had been less vigilant and firm, Oswego
1767 {PapUn de FamilU) ; and Lettres de Montcalm h Bcurlamaqm,
1757. See Appendix E.
> VaudreuU an Minietre de ia Marine, 18 Atmt, 1766.
1750, 1767.] EGOTISM OF VAUDREUIL. 476
would still be in the hands of the English. I cannot
sufficiently congratulate myself on the zeal which my
brother and the Canadians and Indians showed on
this occasion; for without them my orders would
have been given in vain. The hopes of His Britannic
Majesty have vanished, and will hardly revive again;
for I shall take care to crush them in the bud/*^
The pronouns " I " and " my " recur with monot*
onous frequency in his correspondence. ^I have
laid waste all the British provinces.** ^^By promptly
uniting my forces at Carillon, I have kept General
Loudon in check, though he had at his disposal an
army of about twenty thousand men; "* and so with-
out end, in all varieties of repetition. It is no less
characteristic that he here assigns to his enemies
double their actual force.
He has the faintest of praise for the troops from
France. ^^They are generally good, but thus far
they have not absolutely distinguished themselves.
I do justice to the firmness they showed at Oswego,
but it was only the colony troops, Canadians, and
Indians who attacked the forts. Our artillery was
directed by the Chevalier Lie Mercier and M. Frdmont
[colony officers], and was served by our colony troops
and our militia. The officers from France are more
inclined to defence than attack. Far from spending
the least thing here, they lay by their pay. They
saved the money allowed them for refreshments, and
^ Vaudreml au Ministre de la Marine, 1 Septembre, 1766L
• Ibid., 6 NavMmbn, 1760.
476 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1756,1757.
had it in pocket at the end of the campaign. They
get a profiti too, out of their proyisions, by having
certificates made under borrowed names, so that they
can draw cash for them on their return. It is the
same with the soldiers, who also sell their provisions
to the King and get paid for them. In conjunction
with M. Bigoti I labor to remedy all these abuses;
and the rules we have established have saved the
King a considerable expense. M. de Montcalm has
complained very much of these rules.** The intend*
ant Bigot, who here appears as a reformer, was the
centre of a monstrous system of public fraud and
robbery; while the charges ag^nst the French officers
are unsupported. Vaudreuil, who never loses an
opportunity of disparaging them, proceeds thus: ~
"The troops from France are not on very gooc
terms with our Canadians. What can the Soldierj
think of them when they see their officers threaten
them with sticks or swords? The Canadians are
obliged to cany these gentry on their shoulders,
through the cold water, over rocks that cut theii
feet; and if they make a false step they are abused.
Can anything be harder? Finally, Monsieur de
Montcalm is so quick-tempered that he goes to the
length of striking the Canadians. How can he
restrain his officers when he cannot restrain himself?
Could any example be more contagious? This is
the way our Canadians are treated. They deserve
something better.'* He then enlarges on their zeal,
hardihood, and bravery, and adds that nothing but
176«, 1757.] THEIR RIVALBT, 477
their blind submissioa to his commands pieventB
many of them from showing resentment at the usage
they had to endure. The Indians, he goes on to say,
are not so gentle and yielding; and but for his
brother Rigaud and himself, might have gone off in
a rage. ^^ After the campaign of Oswego they did
not hesitate to tell me that they would go wherever
I sent tliem, provided I did not put them under tike
orders of M. de Montcalm. They told me positively
that they could not bear his quick temper. I shall
always maintain the most perfect union and under^
standing with M. le Marquis de Montcalm, but I
shall be forced to take measures which will assure to
our Canadians and Indians treatment such as their
zeal and services merit. "^
To the subject of his complaints Vaudreuil used a
different language; for Montcalm says, after men-
tioning that he had had occasion to punish some of
the Canadians at Oswego : ^* I must do Monsieur de
Vaudreuil the justice to say that he approved my
proceedings." He treated the general with the
blandest politeness. ^ He is a good-natured man,'*
continues Montcalm, ^ mild, with no character of his
own, surrounded by people who tiy to destroy all his
confidence in the general of the troops from France.
I am praised excessively, in order to make him
jealous, excite his Canadian prejudices, and prevent
^ Vaudreuil au Minittre dela Marine, 28 Oetobn, 1756. The abore
extracts are somewhat condensed in the translation. See the letter
in Dnssienz, 279.
478 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1768, 1757.
him from dealing with me frankly, or adopting my
views when he can help it. " * He elsewhere com-
plains that Vaudrenil gave to both him and L^vis
orders couched in such equivocal terms that he could
throw the blame on them in case of reverse.' Mont-
calm liked the militia no better than the governor
liked the regulars. ^I have used them with good
effect, though not in places exposed to the enemy *8
fire. They know neither discipline nor subordina-
tion, and think themselves in all respects the first
nation on earth." He is sure, however, that they
like him: **I have gained the utmost confidence of
the Canadians and Indians; and in the eyes of the
former, when I travel or visit their camps, I have
the air of a tribune of the people." ' ^ The affection
of the Indians for me is so strong that there are
moments when it astonishes the Governor."^ ^The
Indians are delighted with me," he says in another
letter; ^the Canadians are pleased with me; their
officers esteem and fear me, and would be glad if the
French troops and their general could be dispensed
with; and so should I."^ And he writes to his
mother: ^The part I have to play is unique: I am a
general-in-chief subordinated; sometimes with every-
thing to do, and sometimes nothing; I am esteemed,
respected, beloved, envied, hated ; I pass for proud,
1 Montcalm au MinUtre lU la GWre, 11 JuUUt, 1767.
• Ibid., 1 Novembre, 1766.
• Ifnd,, 18 Septembre, 1767.
* Ibid., 4 Novembre, 1767.
* Ibid., 28 AoUt, 1766.
1766. 1767.] VIEWS OP BOUGAINyiLLE. 479
supple, stiff, yielding, polite, devout^ gallant, eto.|
and I long for peace. '*^
The letters of the governor and those of the general,
it will be seen, contradict each other flatly at several
points. Montcalm is sustained by his friend Bougain-
ville, who says that the Indians had a great liking
for him, and that he ^^ knew how to manage them as
well as if he had been bom in their wigwams."'
And while Vaudreuil complains that the Canadians
are ill-used by Montcalm, Bougainville declares that
the regulars are ill-used by Vaudreuil. ^^ One must
be blind not to see that we are treated as the Spartans
treated the Helots." Then he comments on the
jealous reticence of the governor. ^ The Marquis de
Montcalm has not the honor of being consulted; and
it is generally through public rumor that he first
hears of Monsieur de Vaudreuil*s military plans."
He calls the governor ^^ a timid man, who can neither
make a resolution nor keep one ; " and he gives another
trait of him, illustrating it, after his usual way, by
a parallel from the classics: *^ When V. produces an
idea he falls in love with it, as Pygmalion did with
his statue. I can forgive Pygmalion, for what he
produced was a masterpiece."'
The exceeding touchiness of the governor was
sorely tried by certain indiscretions on the part of the
general, who in his rapid and vehement utterances
1 Mantealm h Madame de Saint-VAxin, 23 SepUmhn, 1767.
* BougainvUU h Saint-Lawtne, 19 AoiH, 1767.
• BougainriUey JommaL
480 MONTCALM AND YAUDREUIL. [UST.
•ometimeB forgot tbe rules of prudence. His anger,
tiiough not deep, was extremely impetuons; and it
is said that his irritation against Vaudreuil some-
times found escape in tiie presence of servants and
soldiers.^ There was no lack of reporters, and th^
governor was told everything. The breach widened
apace, and Canada divided itself into two camps:
that of Vandreuil with tiie colony officers, civil and
military, and that of Montcalm with the officers
from France. The principal exception was the
Chevalier de L^vis. This brave and able com-
mander had an easy and adaptable nature, whicb
made him a sort of connecting link between the two
parties. ^ One should be on good terms with every-
body," was a maxim which he sometimes expressed,
and on which he shaped his conduct with notable
success. The intendant Bigot also, an adroit and
accomplished person, had the skill to avoid breaking
with either sidd.
But now the season of action was near, and
domestic strife must give place to efforts against the
common foe. ^God or devil!" Montcalm wrote to
Bourlamaque, ^we must do something and risk a
fight. If we succeed, we can, all three of us [you,
Uvisy and 7], ask for promotion. Bum this letter."
The prospects, on the whole, werer hopeful. The
victory at Oswego had wrought marvels among the
Indians, inspired the faithful, confirmed the waver-
ing, and daunted the ill-disposed. The whole West
^ £v/nemmUs de la Guerre en Canada, ITfiO^ 176(X
1757.] IKOQUOIS DEPUTIES. 481
was astir, ready to pour itself again in blood and
fire against the English border; and even the
Cherokees and Choctaws, old friends of the British
colonies, seemed on the point of turning against
them.^ The Five Nations were half won for France.
In November a large deputation of them came to
renew the chain of friendship at Montreal. ^' I have
laid Oswego in ashes," said Vaudreuil; ^'the English
quail before me. Why do you nourish serpents in
your bosom ? They mean only to enslave you. " The
deputies trampled under foot the medals the English
had given them, and promised the ^'Devourer of
Villages," for so they styled the governor, that they
would never more lift the hatchet against his children.
The chief difficulty was to get rid of them; for,
being clothed and fed at the expense of the King,
they were in no haste to take leave; and learning
that New Year's Day was a time of visits, gifts, and
health-drinking, they declared that they would stay
to share its pleasures; which tliey did, to their own
satisfaction and the annoyance of those who were
forced to entertain them and their squaws.^ An
active siding witJi France was to be expected only
from the western bands of the Confederacy. Neu-
trality alone could be hoped for from the others, who
1 VaudreuU au Miniwtrt de la Marine, 19 Avril, 1767.
* Montcalm au Minittre de la Guerre, 24 AtfrU, 1757 ; Relation de
VAmhauade de$ Cinq Nations a Montreal, Jointe a la lettre pr€c€dente,
Proch-verbal de diffhentee EiUremtee entre M. de Vaudreuil et lu
Diputie dee Natione eauvages du 13 au dO Ikbembre, 1766. Bfalartic,
Journal. Montcalm h Madame de Saint- V€ran, 1 Avrilt 1757.
TOL.I. — 81
482 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1757.
were too near the English safely to declare against
them; while from one of tlie tribes, the Mohawks,
even neutrality was doubtful.
Vaudreuil, while disliking the French regulars,
felt that he could not dispense with them, and had
asked for a reinforcement. His request was granted;
and the colonial mmister informed him that twenty-
four hundred men had been ordered to Canada to
strengthen the colony regulars and the battalions of
Montcalm.^ This, according to the estimate of the
minister, would raise the regular force in Canada to
sixtjr-Bix hundred rank and file.' The announcement
was followed by another, less agreeable. It was to
tiie effect that a formidable squadron was fitting out
in British ports. Was Quebec to be attacked, or
Louisbourg? Louisbourg was beyond reach of suc-
cor from Canada; it must rely on its own strength
and on help from France. But so long as Quebec
was threatened, all the troops in the colony must be
held ready to defend it, and the hope of attacking
England in her own domains must be abandoned.
Till these doubts were solved, nothing could be
done ; and hence g^at activity in catching prisoners
for the sake of news. A few were brought in, but
they knew no more of the matter than the French
themselves ; and Vaudreuil and Montcalm rested for
a while in suspense.
1 Ordn9 du Roy et D^pSehes des Minittres, Mars, 1767.
* Ministerial Minuie on lA« MilHary Force in Canada^ 1767, in N, Y^
Col, Docs., X. 62&
1757.] ENGLISH DELAYS. 483
The truth, had they known it, would have glad-
dened their hearts. The English preparations were
aimed at Louisbourg. In the autumn before, Loudon,
prejudiced against all plans of his predecessor,
Shirley, proposed to the ministry a scheme of his
own, involving a possible attack on Quebec, but with
the reduction of Louisbourg as its immediate object,
— an important object, no doubt, but one tiiat had
no direct bearing on the main question of controlling
the interior of the continent. Pitt, then for a brief
space at the head of the government, accepted the
suggestion, and set himself to executing it; but he
was hampered by opposition, and early in April was
forced to resign. Then followed a contest of rival
claimants to office; and the war against France was
made subordinate to disputes of personal politics.
Meanwhile one Florence Hensey, a spy at London,
had informed the French court that a great armament
was fitting out for America, though he could not tell
its precise destination. Without loss of time three
French squadrons were sent across the Atlantic, with
orders to rendezvous at Louisbourg, the conjectured
point of attack.
The English were as tardy as their enemies were
prompt. Everything depended on speed; yet their
fleet, under Admiral Holboume, consisting of fifteen
shipe-of-the-line and three frigates, with about five
thousand troops on board, did not get to sea till the
fifth of May, when it made sail for Halifax, where
Loudon was to meet it with additional forces.
484 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [17«7.
Loudon had drawn off the best part of the troops
from the northern frontier, and they were now at
New York waiting for embarkation. That the design
might be kept secret, he laid an embargo on colonial
shipping, — a measure which exasperated the colonists
without answering its purpose. Now ensued a long
delay, during which the troops, the provincial levies,
the transports destined to carry them, and the ships
of war which were to serve as escort, all lay idle. In
the interval Loudon showed great activity in writing
despatches and other avocations more or less proper
to a commander, being always busy, without, accord-
ing to Franklin, accomplishing anything. One
Innis, who had come with a message from the gov-
ernor of Pennsylvania, and had waited above a fort-
night for the general's reply, remarked of him that
he was like St. George on a tavern sign, always on
horseback, and never riding on.^ Yet nobody longed
more than he to reach the rendezvous at Halifax.
He was waiting for news of Holboume, and he wuited
in vain. He knew only that a French fleet had been
seen off the coast strong enough to overpower his
escort and sink all his transports.^ But the season
was growing late ; he must act quickly if he was to
act at all. He and Sir Charles Hardy agreed between
1 Works of Franklin, i. 219. Franklin intimates that whUe LoQ-
don was constantly writing, he rarely sent off despatches. This !■
a mistake ; there is abundance of them, often tedlonsly long, in the
Public Record Office.
* Loudon to Pitt, 30 May, 1757. He had not learned Pitt's
resignation.
1767.] FAILURE OF LOUDOK. 486
them that the risk must be run; and on the twentieth
of June the whole force put to sea. They met no
enemy, and entered Halifax harbor on the thirtieth.
Holboume and his fleet had not yet appeared; but
his ships soon came straggling in, and before the
tenth of July all were at anchor before the town.
Then there was more delay. The troops, nearly
twelve thousand in all, were landed, and weeks were
spent in drilling tliem and planting vegetables for
their refreshment. Sir Charles Hay was put under
arrest for saying that the nation's money was spent
in sham battles and raising cabbages. Some attempts
were made to learn the state of Louisbourg; and
Captain Gorham, of the rangers, who reconnoitred it
from a fishing vessel, brought back an imperfect
report, upon which, after some hesitation, it was
resolved to proceed to the attagk. The troops were
embarked again, and all was ready, when, on the
fourth of August, a sloop came from Newfoundland,
bringing letters found on board a French vessel lately
captured. From these it appeared that all three of
the French squadrons were united in the harbor of
Louisbourg, to the number of twenty-two ships-of-
the-line, besides several frigates, and that the gar-
rison had been increased to' a total force of seven
thousand men, ensconced in the strongest fortress of
the continent. So far as concerned the naval force,
the account was true. La Motte, the French admiral,
had with him a fleet carrying an aggregate of thir-
teen hundred and sixty cannon, anchored in a shel'
486 MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL. [1767.
tered harbor under the guns of the town. Success
was now hopeless, and the costly enterprise was at
once abandoned. Loudon with his troops sailed back
for New York, and Admiral Holboume, who had
been joined by four additional ships, steered for
Louisbourg, in hopes that the French fleet would
come out and fight him. He cruised off the port;
but La Motte did not accept the challenge.
The elements declared for France. A September
gale, of fury rare even on that tempestuous coast,
burst upon the British fleet. ^It blew a perfect
hurricane," sajrs the unfortunate admiral, ^'and drove
us right on shore." One ship was dashed on the
rocks, two leagues from Louisbourg. A shifting of
the wind in the nick of time saved the rest from total
wreck. Nine were dismasted; others threw their
cannon into the sea. Not one was left fit for imme-
diate action; and had La Motte sailed out of Louis-
bourg, he would have had them all at his mercy.
Delay, the source of most of the disasters that
befell England and her colonies at this dismal epoch,
was the ruin of the Louisbourg expedition. The
greater part of La Motte 's fleet reached its desti-
nation a full month before that of Holboume. Had
the reverse taken place, the fortress miist have
fallen. As it was, the ill-starred attempt, drawing
off the British forces from the frontier, where they
were needed most, did for France more than she
could have done for herself, and gave Montcalm and
1757.] FORCE OF THE FRENCH. 487
Vaudreuil the opportunity to execute a scheme which
they had nursed since the fall of Oswego.^
^ Despatchei of Loudon, February to August, 1767. Knox, Cam-
paigru in North America, i. 6-28. Knox was in the expedition.
Review of Mr. Pitt'i Administration (London, 1763). The Conduct of
a Noble Commander in America impartially reviewed (London, 1758).
Beatson, Naval and Military Memoirs, ii. 49-50. Answer to the Letter
to two Great Men (London, 1760). Entick, ii. 168, 169. Holboume to
Loudon, 4 August, 1757. HoCboume to Pitt, 29 September, 1757. Ibid,,
dO September, 1757. Holboume to Pownall, 2 November, 1757. Mante,
86, 97. Relation du D^instre arrivS a la Flotte Angkdse commandUe par
VAmiral Holboume, CheTalier Johnstone, Campaign of Louisbourg,
London Magazine, 1757, 514. Gentleman's Magazine, 1757, 468, 476.
Ibid., 1758, 168-178.
It has been said that London was scared from his task hj false
reports of the strength of the French at Looisbourg. This was not
the case. The Gazetu de France, 621, says that La Motte had
twentj-f onr ships of war. Bongainyille sajs that as earlj as the
ninth of Jnne there were twenty-one ships of war, including fiye
frigates, at Looisbonrg. To this the list giren bj Knox closely
answers.
CHAPTER XV.
1767.
PORT WILLIAM HBNBY.
Anotheb Blow. — Ths Wab-aono. — Tbb Ahmt at Tiocm*
DEROOA. — Indian Allies. — The War-feast. — Trsaticbiit
OF Prisoners. — Cannibalism. — Surprise and Slauobtbb. —
Tbe War Council. — March or Livis. — Thib Aemt km-
barks. — Fort William Hbnbt. — Noctubnal Scjbhb. —
Indian Funbbal. — Advance ufon the Fobt. — Gbneral
Webb : his Difficulties ; his WEAUtEss. — The Sibob
begun. — Conduct of the Indians. — /The Intebcbptbd
Lbttbb. •— Desperate Position of th« Besieqed. — Capitu-
lation. — Ferocitt of the Indians. — Mission of Bouqain-
TiLLE. — Murder of Wounded Men. — A Scene of Terbob.
— The Massacbe. — Efforts of Montcalm. — The Fort
BUBNED.
"' I AH going on the ninth to sing the warnsong at
the Lake of Two Mountains, and on the next day at
Saut St. Louis, — a long, tiresome ceremony. On
the twelfth I am off; and I count on having news to
tell you by the end of this month or the beginning of
next." Thus Montcalm wrote to his wife from
Montreal early in July. All doubts had been solved.
Prisoners taken on the Hudson and despatches from
Versailles had made it certain that Loudon was
bound to Louisbourg, carrying with him the best of
the troops that had guarded the New York frontier.
17OT.] INDIAN COMPLIMENT. 489
The time was come, not only to strike the English
on Lake George, but perhaps to seize Fort Edward
and carry terror to Albany itself. Only one di£S-
culty remained, the want of provisions. Agents were
sent to collect com and bacon among the inhabitants;
the curds and militia captains were ordered to aid in
the work; and enough was presently found to feed
twelve thousand men for a month.^
The emissaries of the governor had been busy all
winter among the tribes of the West and j^orth ; and
more than a thousand savages, lured by the prospect
of gifts, scalps, and plunder, were now encamped at
Montreal. Many of them had never visited a French
settlement before. All were eager to see Montcalm,
whose exploit in taking Oswego had inflamed their
imagination; and one day, on a visit of ceremony, an
orator from Michilimackinac addressed the general
thus: ^^We wanted to see this famous man who
tramples the English under his feet We thought
we should find him so tall that his head would be
lost in the clouds. But you are a little man, my
Father. It is when we look into your eyes that we
see the greatness of the pine-tree and the fire of the
eagle."*
It remained to muster the Mission Indians settled
in or near the limits of the colony ; and it was to this
end that Montcalm went to sing the war-song with
^ VandrenU, XettrM etrenhnru amx Curh H aux CajntaimM d§
MiUee de$ ParoiutM da Gawtermmmd de Montrtal, 16 Juin, 1757
* Boagainyille, Journal.
490 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1767.
the converts of the Two Mountains. Rigaud, Bou-
gainville, young Longueuil, and others were of the
party; and when they landed, the Indians came
down to the shore, their priests at their head, and
greeted the general with a volley of musketry; then
received him after dark in their grand council-lodge,
where the circle of wild and savage visages, half seen
in the dim light of a few candles, suggested to
Bougainville a midnight conclave of wizards. He
acted vicariously the chief part in the ceremony. " I
sang the war-song in the name of M. de Montcalm,
and was much applauded. It was nothing but these
words, ^ Let us trample the English under our feet, '
chanted over and over again, in cadence with the
movements of the savages." Then came the war-
feast, against which occasion Montcalm had caused
three oxen to be roasted.^ On the next day the
party went to Caughnawaga, or Saut St. Louis,
where the ceremony was repeated; and Bougainville,
who again sang the war-song in the name of his com-
mander, was requited by adoption into the clan of
the Turtle. Three more oxen were solemnly de-
voured, and with one voice the warriors took up the
hatchet.
Meanwhile troops, Canadians and Indians, were
^ Boagainyille describes a ceremony in the Mission Church of
the Two Mountains in which warriors and squaws sang in the choir.
Ninety-nine years after, in 1866, I was present at a similar cere-
mony on the same spot, and heard the descendants of the same
warriors and squaws sing like their ancestors. Great changes hare
since taken place at this old mission.
1767.] CAMPS AT TICONDEROGA. 491
moving by detachments up Lake Champlain. Fleets
of bateaux and canoes followed each other day by
day along the capricious lake, in calm or storm, sun-
shine or rain, till, towards the end of July, the whole
force was gathered at Ticonderoga, the base of the
intended movement. Bourlamaque had been there
since May with the battalions of B^m and Royal
Roussillon, finishing the fort, sending out war-
parties, and trying to discover the force and designs
of the English at Fort William Henry.
Ticonderoga is a high rocky promontory between
Lake Champlain on the north and the mouth of the
outlet of Lake George on the south. Near its
extremity and close to the fort were still encamped
the two battalions under Bourlamaque, while bateaux
and canoes were passing incessantly up the river of
the outlet. There were scarcely two miles of navi-
gable water, at the end of which the stream fell
foaming over a high ledge of rock that barred the
way. Here the French were building a saw-mill;
and a wide space had been cleared to form an encamp-
ment defended on all sides by an abattis, within
which stood the tents of the battalions of La Reine,
La Sarre, Languedoc, and Guienne, all commanded
by L^vis. Above the cascade the stream circled
through the forest in a series of beautiful rapids, and
from the camp of L^vis a road a mile and a half long
had been cut to the navigable water above. At the
end of this road there was another fortified camp,
formed of colony regulars, Canadians, and Indians,
492 PORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
under Rigaud. It was scarcely a mile fartiher to
Lake George, where on the western side there was
an outpost, chiefly of Canadians and Indians ; while
advanced parties were stationed at Bald Mountain,
now called Rogers Rock, and elsewhere on the lake,
to watch the movements of the English. The
various encampments just mentioned were ranged
along a valley extending four mUes from Lake
Champlain to Lake George, and bordered by moun-
tains wooded to the top.
Here was gathered a martial population of eight
thousand men, including the brightest civilization
and the darkest barbarism: from the scholar-soldier
Montcalm and his no less accomplished aide-de-camp;
from Ldvis, conspicuous for graces of person; from
a throng of courtly young officers, who would have
seemed out of place in that wilderness had they not
done their work so well in it; from these to the
foulest man-eating savage of the uttermost northwest.
Of Indian allies there were nearly two thousand.
One of their tribes, the lowas, spoke a language
which no interpreter understood; and they all biv-
ouacked where they saw fit: for no man could control
them. ^^I see no difference," sajns Bougainville, ^^in
the dress, ornaments, dances, and songs of the
various western nations. They go naked, excepting
a strip of cloth passed through a belt, and paint
themselves black, red, blue, and other colors. Their
heads are shaved and adorned with bunches of
feathers, and they wear rings of brass wire in theix
1757.] TROUBLESOME ALLIES. 498
ears. They wear beayernskin blankets, and cany
lances, bows and arrows, and quivers made of the
skins of beasts. For the rest they are straight, well
made, and generally very tall. Their religion is
brute paganism. I will say it once for all, one must
be the slave of these savages, listen to them day and
night, in council and in private, whenever the fancy
takes them, or whenever a dream, a fit of the vapors,
or their perpetual craving for brandy, gets possession
of them; besides which they are always wanting
something for their equipment, arms, or toilet, and
the general of the army must give written orders
for the smallest trifle, — an eternal, wearisome detail,
of which one has no idea in Europe."
It was not easy to keep them fed. Rations would
be served to them for a week; they would consume
them in three days, and come for more. On one
occasion they took the matter into their own hands,
and butchered and devoured eighteen head of cattle
intended for the troops; nor did any officer dare
oppose this ^^St. Bartholomew of the oxen," as
Bougainville calls it. ^^ Their paradise is to be
drunk," says the young officer. Their paradise was
rather a hell; for sometimes, when mad with brandy,
they grappled and tore each other with their teeth
like wolves. They were continually ^ making medi-
cine," that is, consulting the Manitou, to whom they
hung up offerings, sometimes a dead dog, and some-
times the belt-cloth which formed their only garment
The Mission Indians were better allies than these
494 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
heathen of the West; and their priests, who followed
them to the war, had great influence over them.
They were armed with guns, which they well knew
how to use. Their dress, though savage, was gen-
erally decent, and they were not cannibals; though
in other respects they retained all their traditional
ferocity and most of their traditional habits. They
held frequent war-feasts, one of which is described
by Roubaud, Jesuit missionary of the Abenakis of
St. Francis, whose flock formed a part of the com-
pany present.
^^ Imagine, " says the father, '^a great assembly of
savages adorned with every ornament most suited to
disfigure them in European eyes, painted with ver-
milion, white, green, yellow, and black made of soot
and the scrapings of pots. A single savage face
combines all these different colors, methodically laid
on with the help of a little tallow, which serves for
pomatum. The head is shaved except at the top,
where there is a small tuft, to which are fastened
feathers, a few beads of wampum, or some such
trinket. Every part of the head has its ornament.
Pendants hang from the nose and also from the
ears, which are split in infancy and drawn down by
weights till they flap at last against the shoulders.
The rest of the equipment answers to this fantastic
decoration: a shirt bedaubed with vermilion, wam-
pum collars, silver bracelets, a large knife hanging
on the breast, moosenskin moccasons, and a belt of
various colors always absurdly combined. The
1757.] WARr-FEAST. 496
sachems and war-ohiefis are distinguished from the
rest: the latter by a gorget, and the former by a
medal, with the King's portrait on one side, and oa
the others Mars and Bellona joining hands, with the
device. Virtus et Honor. ^^
Thus attired, the company sat in two lines facing
each other, with kettles in the middle filled with
meat chopped for distribution. To a dignified silence
succeeded songs, sung by several chiefs in succession,
and compared by the narrator to the howling of
wolves. Then followed a speech from the chief
orator, highly commended by Roubaud, who could
not help admiring this effort of savage eloquence.
"After the harangue," he continues, "they proceeded
to nominate the chiefis who were to take command.
As soon as one was named he rose and took the head
of some animal that had been butchered for the feast.
He raised it aloft so that all the company could see
it, and cried, ^ Behold the head of the enemy I '
Applause and cries of joy rose from all parts of the
assembly. The chief, with the head in his hand,
passed down between the lines, singing his war-song,
bragging of his exploits, taunting and defjring the
enemy, and glorifying himself beyond all measure.
To hear his self-laudation in these moments of martial
transport one would think him a conquering hero
ready to sweep everjrthing before him. As he passed
in front of the other savages, they would respond by
dull broken cries jerked up from the depths of their
stomachs, and accompanied by movements of theii
496 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. .1757.
bodies so odd that one must be well used to them to
keep countenance. In the course of his song the
chief would utter from time to time some grotesque
witticism; then he would stop, as if pleased with
himself, or rather to listen to the thousand confused
cries of applause that greeted his ears. He kept up
his martial promenade as long as he liked the sport;
and when he had had enough, ended by flinging
down the head of the animal with an air of contempt,
to show that his warlike appetite craved meat of
another sort."^ Others followed with similar songs
and pantomime, and the festival was closed at last
by ladling out the meat from the kettles, and devour-
ing it.
Roubaud was one day near the fort, when he saw
the shore lined with a thousand Indians, watching
four or five English prisoners, who, with the war-
party that had captured them, were approaching in
a boat from the farther side of the water. Suddenly
the whole savage crew broke away together and ran
into the neighboring woods, whence they soon
emerged, yelling diaboUcally, each armed with a
club. The wretched prisoners were to be forced to
*^run the gantlet," which would probably have
killed them. They were saved by the chief who
commanded the war-party, and who, on the persua*
sion of a French officer, claimed them as his own
and forbade the game; upon which, according to
^ Lettresdu Plre . . . (Roubaud), Afi55i(miiatrecA«<^^6eiial:i«y 3]
OcfQ6r«, 1767, in Lettrf Mdifiantu 0t Cwriwtei, yi. 180 (1810).
1767.] CANNIBALISM. 497
role in such oases, the rest abandoned it. On this
same day the missionary met troops of Indians con-
ducting several bands of English prisoners along the
road that led through the forest from the camp of
L^vis. Each of the captives was held by a cord made
fast about the neck; and the sweat was starting from
their brows in the extremity of their horror and dis-
tress. Roubaud's tent was at this time in the camp
of the Ottawas. He presently saw a large number
of them squatted about a fire, before which meat was
roasting on sticks stuck in the ground ; and, approach-
ing, he saw that it was the flesh of an Englishman,
other parts of which were boiling in a kettle, while
near by sat eight or ten of the prisoners, forced to
see their comrade devoured. The horror-stricken
priest began to remonstrate ; on which a young savage
fiercely replied in broken French: "You have French
taste; I have Indian. This is good meat forme;''
and the feasters pressed him to share it.
Bougainville says that this abomination could not
be prevented; which only means that if force had
been used to stop it, the Ottawas would have gone
home in a rage. They were therefore left to finish
their meal undisturbed. Having eaten one of their
prisoners, they began to treat the rest with the
utmost kindness, bringing them white bread, and
attending to all their wants, — a seeming change oi
heart due to the fact that they were a valuable com-
modity, for which the owners hoped to get a good
price at Montreal. Montcalm wished to send them
TOL. X.— S2
498 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
thither at once, to which after long debate the
Indians consented, demanding, however, a receipt in
full, and bargaining that the captives should be sup-
plied with shoes and blankets.^
These unfortunates belonged to a detachment of
three hundred provincials, chiefly New Jersey men,
sent from Fort William Henry under command of
Colonel Parker to reconnoitre the French outposts.
Montcalm's scouts discovered them ; on which a band
of Indians, considerably more numerous, went to
meet them under a French partisan named Corbidre,
and ambushed themselves not far from Sabbath Day
Point. Parker had rashly divided his force ; and at
daybreak of the twenty-sixth of July three of his
boats fell into the snare, and were captured without
a shot. Three others followed, in ignorance of what
had happened, and shared the &te of the first.
When the rest drew near, they were greeted by a
deadly volley from the thickets, and a swarm of
canoes darted out upon them. The men were seized
with such a panic that some of them jumped into the
water to escape, while the Indians leaped after them
and speared them with their lances like fish. ** Terri-
fied," says Bougainville, "by the sight of these
monsters, their agility, their firing, and their yells,
they surrendered almost without resistance.*' About
a hundred, however, made their escape. The rest
^ Journal de PExp€diti<m contre U Fort George [William HenryJ
du 12 JuiUet au 16 Aok, 1757. BougainTille, Journal. Uttre du P.
Boubaud,
1757.] GRAND COUNCIL. 499
were killed or captured, and three of the bodies were
eaten on the spot. The journalist adds that the
victory so elated the Indians that they became insup-
portable; ^^but here in the forests of America we can
no more do without them than without cavalry on
the plain.*'*
Another success at about the same time did not
tend to improve their manners. A hundred and fifty
of them, along with a few Canadians under Marin,
made a dash at Fort Edward, killed or drove in the
pickets, and returned with thirty-two scalps and a
prisoner. It was found, however, that the scalps
were far from representing an equal number of heads,
the Indians having learned the art of making two or
three out of one by judicious division.'
Preparations were urged on with the utmost energy.
Provisions, camp equipage, ammunition, cannon, and
bateaux were dragged by gangs of men up the road
from the camp of L^vis to the head of the rapids.
The work went on through heat and rain, by day
and night, till, at the end of July, all was done.
Now, on the eve of departure, Montcalm, anxious for
1 BougainTille, Journal. Malartic, Jmtmal. Montcalm h Vau^
dreuil, 27 JuHUt, 1757. Webb to Loudon, 1 August, 1757. Webb to
Delanceif, 30 Juljf, 1757. Journal de V Expedition amtre le Fort George,
London Magazine, 1757, 457. Niles, French and Indian Wars,
Boston Gazette, 15 August, 1757.
* This affair waa much exaggerated at the time. I foUow Bou«
gainrille, who had the facta from Marin. According to him, the
thirtj-two scalps represent eleven killed ; which exactly answers to
the English lost as stated bj Colonel Frje in a letter from Foit
£dward«
500 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
harmony among his red allies, called them to a grand
council near the camp of Rigaud. Forty-one tribes
and sub-tribes, Christian and heathen, from the East
and from the West, were represented in it. Here
were the mission savages, — Iroquois of Caughnawaga,
Two Mountains, and La Pr&entation; Tlurons of
Lorette and Detroit; Nipissings of Lake Nipissing;
Abenakis of St. Francis, Becancour, Missisqui, and
the Penobscot; Algonquins of Three Rivers and Two
Mountains; Micmacs and Malicites from Acadia: in
all, eight hundred chiefs and warriors. With these
came the heathen of the West, — Ottawas of seven
distinct bands; Ojibwas from Lake Superior, and
Mississagas from the region of Lakes Erie and
Huron; Pottawattamies and Menominies from Lake
Michigan; Sacs, Foxes, and Winnebagoes from
Wisconsin ; Miamis from the prairies of Illinois, and
lowas from the banks of the Des Moines : nine hun-
dred and seventy-nine chiefs and warriors, men of
the forests and men of the plains, hunters of the
moose and hunters of the buffalo, bearers of steel
hatchets and stone war-clubs, of French guns and of
flint-headed arrows. All sat in silence, decked with
ceremonial paint, scalp-locks, eagle plumes, or horns
of buffalo; and the dark and wild assemblage was
edged with white uniforms of officers from France,
who came in numbers to the spectacle. Other
officers were also here, all belonging to the colony.
They had been appointed to the command of the
Indian allies, over whom, however, they had little or
1767.] INDIAN ORATORY. 601
no real authority. First among them was the bold
and hardy Saint-Luc de la Come, who was called
general of the Indians ; and under him were others,
each assigned to some tribe or group of tribes, — the
intrepid Marin; Charles Langlade, who had left his
squaw wife at Michilimackinac to join the war;
Niyerville, Langis, La Plante, Hertel, Longueuil,
Herbin, Lorimier, Sabrevois, and Fleurimont; men
familiar from childhood with forests and savages.
Each tribe had its interpreter, often as lawless as
those with whom he had spent his life ; and for the
converted tribes there were three missionaries, —
Piquet for the Iroquois, Mathevet for the Nipissings,
who were half heathen, and Roubaud for the
Abenakis.1
There was some complaint among the Indians be-
cause they were crowded upon by the officers who
came as spectators. This difficulty being removed,
the council opened, Montcalm having already ex-
plained his plans to the chiefs and told them the part
he expected them to play.
Pennahouel, chief of the Ottawas, and senior of all
the Assembly, rose and said: ^^My father, I, who
have counted more moons than any here, thank you
for the good words you have spoken. I approve
1 The aboYe !■ chiefly from Tableau des Saueagea qui se trouvent a
VArm^B du Marquis de Montcalm, le 28 Juillet, 1757. Fortj-one tribes
and sub-tribes are here named, some, howeyer, represented by only
three or four warriors. Besides those set down under the head of
Christians, it is stated that a few of tlie Ottawas of Detroit and
MiehUimackinac still retained the faitli.
502 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
them. Nobody ever spoke better. It is the Manitou
of War who inspires you."
Kikensick, chief of the Nipissings, rose in behalf
of the Christian Indians, and addressed the heathen
^of the west. "Brothers, we thank you for coming
to help us defend our lands against the English.
Our cause is good. The Master of Life is on our
side. Can you doubt it, brothers, after the great blow
you have just struck? It covers you with glory.
The lake, red with the blood of Corlaer [the English]^
bears witness forever to your achievement. We too
share your glory, and are proud of what you have
done." Then, turning to Montcalm: "We are even
more glad than you, my father, who have crossed
the great water, not for your own sake, but to obey
the great King and defend his children. He has
bound us all together by the most solemn of ties.
Let us take care that nothing shall separate us."
The various interpreters, each in turn, having
explained this speech to the Assembly, it was received
with ejaculations of applause; and when they had
ceased, Montcalm spoke as follows : " Children, I am
delighted to see you all joined in this good work.
So long as you remain one, the English cannot resist
you. The great King has sent me to protect and
defend you; but above all he has charged me to
make you happy and unconquerable, by establishing
among you the union which ought to prevail among
brothers, children of one father, the great Onontio."
Then he held out a prodigious wampum belt of six
1757.] HARMONY IN CAMP. 608
thousand beads: ^^Take this sacred pledge of his
word. The union of the beads of which it is made is
the sign of your united strength. By it I bind you
all together, so that none of you can separate from
the rest till the English are defeated and their fort
destroyed."
Pennahouel took up the belt and said: ^^ Behold,
brothers, a circle drawn around us by the great
Onontio. Let none of us go out from it; for so long
as we keep in it, the Master of Life will help all our
undertakings." Other chiefis spoke to the same
effect, and the council closed in perfect harmony.^
Its various members bivouacked together at the camp
by the lake, and by their carelessness soon set it on
fire ; whence the place became known as the Burned
Camp. Those from the missions confessed their sins
all day; while their heathen brothers hung an old
coat and a pair of leggings on a pole as tribute to the
Manitou. This greatly embarrassed the three priests,
who were about to say mass, but doubted whether
they ought to say it in presence of a sacrifice to the
devil. Hereupon they took counsel of Montcalm.
^^ Better say it so than not at all," replied the mili-
tary casuist. Brandy being prudently denied them,
the allies grew restless ; and the greater part paddled
up the lake to a spot near the place where Parker
had beBn defeated. Here they encamped to wait the
arrival of the army, and amused themselves mean-
time with killing rattlesnakes, there being a populous
^ BoagsinTUle, Journal,
604 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1767.
"den" of those reptiles among the neighboring
rocks.
Montcalm sent a circular letter to the regular
officers, urging them to dispense for a while with
luxuries, and even comforts. "We have but few
bateaux, and these are so filled with stores that a
large division of the army must go by land ; " and he
directed that everything not absolutely necessary
should be left behind, and that a canvas shelter to
every two officers should serve them for a tent, and
a bearskin for a bed. " Yet I do not forbid a mat-
tress," he adds. "Age and infirmities may make it
necessary to some ; but I shall not have one myself,
and make no doubt that all who can, will willingly
imitate me." ^
The bateaux lay ready by the shore, but could not
carry the whole force ; and L^vis received orders to
march by the side of the lake with twenty-five hun-
dred men, Canadians, regulars, and Iroquois. He
set out at daybreak of the thirtieth of July, his men
carrjdng nothing but their knapsacks, blankets, and
weapons. Guided by the unerring Indians, they
climbed the steep gorge at the side of Rogers Rock,
gained the valley beyond, and marched southward
along a Mohawk trail which threaded the forest in a
course parallel to the lake. The way was of the
roughest; many straggled from the line, and two
oflBcers completely broke down. The first destina-
tion of the party was the mouth of Ganouskie Bay,
1 CirevHaire du Marquis de Montcalm^ 26 JuUlet^ VHH*
1757.] ADVANCE OF MONTCALM. 606
now called Northwest Bay, where they were to wait
for Montcalm, and kindle three fires as a signal that
they had reached the rendezvous.^
Montcalm left a detachment to hold Ticonderoga;
and then, on the first of August, at two in the after-
noon, he embarked at the Burned Camp with all his
remaining force. Including those with L^vis, the
expedition counted about seven thousand six hun-
dred men, of whom more than sixteen hundred were
Indians.' At five in the afternoon they reached the
place where the Indians, having finished their rattle-
snake hunt, were smoking their pipes and waiting for
the army. The red warriors embarked, and joined
the French flotilla; and now, as evening drew near,
was seen one of those wild pageantries of war which
Lake George has often witnessed. A restless multi-
tude of birch canoes, filled with painted savages,
glided by shores and islands, like troops of swimming
water-fowl. Two hundred and fifty bateaux came
next, moved by sail and oar, some bearing the Cana-
dian militia, and some the battalions of Old France
in trim and gay attire : first, La Reine and Languedoc;
^ Guerre du Canada, par le Chevalier de L€m». This manuscript
of L^Tis is largely in the nature of a journal.
* jStat de VArm^ Fran^ise devant le Fort George, autrememt
GuiUaume-Henri, le 3 AoSif, 1757. Tableau dee Sauvages qui m
trouvent h I'Arm^e du Marquis de Montcalm, le 28 Juillet, 1757. This
glTes a total of 1,790 Indians, of whom some afterwards left the
army. jStat de VArmie du Roi en Canada, sur le Lac St. Sacremeni et
dans les Camps de Carillon, le 29 Juillet, 1757. This gives a total of
8,019 men, of whom about four hundred wer^ left in garrison at
Ticonderoga.
506 FORT WnXIAM HENRY. [1767.
then the colony regulars ; then La Sarre and Guienne ;
then the Canadian brigade of Courtemanche ; then
the cannon and mortars, each on a platform sustained
by two bateaux lashed side by side, and rowed by
the militia of Saint-Ours; then the battalions of
B^am and Royal Roussillon; then the Canadians of
Gasp^, with the provision-bateaux and the field-
hospital; and, lastly, a rear-guard of regulars closed
the line. So, under the flush of sunset, they held
their course along the romantic lake, to play their
part in the historic drama that lends a stem enchant-
ment to its fascinating scenery. They passed the
Narrows in mist and darkness; and when, a little
before dawn, they rounded the high promontory of
Tongue Mountain, they saw, far on the right, three
fiery sparks shining through the gloom. These were
the signal-fires of L^vis, to tell them that he had
reached the appointed spot.^
L^vis had arrived the evening before, after his
hard march through the sultiy midsummer forest.
His men had now rested for a night, and at ten in
the morning he marched again. Montcalm followed
at noon, and coasted the western shore, till, towards
evening, he found L^vis waiting for him by the
margin of a small bay not far from the English
fort, though hidden from it by a projecting point
of land. Canoes and bateaux were drawn up on
the beach, and the united forces made their bivouac
together.
^ The site of the present Tillage of Bolton.
1767.] A NIGHT ALARM. 607
The earthen mounds of Fort William Henry still
stand by the brink of Lake George; and seated at
the sunset of an August day under the pines that
cover them, one gazes on a scene of soft and soothing
beauty, where dreamy waters reflect the glories of
the mountains and the sky. As it is to-day, so it
was then; all breathed repose and peace. The
splash of some leaping trout, or the dipping wing of
a passing swallow, alone disturbed the summer calm
of that unrufSed mirror.
About ten o'clock at night two boats set out from
the fort to reconnoitre. They were passing a point
of land on their left, two miles or more down the
lake, when the men on board descried through the
gloom a strange object against the bank; and they
rowed towards it to learn what it might be. It was
an awning over the bateaux that carried Roubaud
and his brother missionaries. As the rash oarsmen
drew near, the bleating of a sheep in one of the
French provision-boats warned tliem of danger; and
turning, they pulled for their lives towards the eastern
shore. Instantly more than a thousand Indians threw
themselves into their canoes and dashed in hot pur-
suit, making the lake and the moimtains ring with
the din of their war-whoops. The fugitives had
nearly reached land when their pursuers opened fire.
They replied; shot one Indian dead, and woimded
another; then snatched their oars again, and gained
the bench. But the whole savage crew was upon
them. Several were killed, three were taken, and
508 PORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
the rest escaped in the dark woods. ^ The prisoners
were brought before Montcabn, and gave him valu-
able information of the strength and position of the
English.^
The Indian who was killed was a noted chief of
the Nipissings; and his tribesmen howled in grief for
their bereavement. They painted his face with ver-
milion, tied feathers in his hair, hung pendants in
his ears and nose, clad him in a resplendent war-
dress, put silver bracelets on his arms, hung a gorget
on his breast with a flame-colored ribbon, and seated
him in state on the top of a hillock, with his lance
in his hand, his gun in the hollow of his arm, his
tomahawk in his belt, and his kettle by his side.
Then they all crouched about him in lugubrious
silence. A funeral harangue followed; and next a
song and solemn dance to the booming of the Indian
drum. In the gray of the morning they buried him
as he sat, and placed food in the grave for his journey
to the land of souls. ^
As the sun rose above the eastern mountains the
French camp was all astir. The column of L^vis,
with Indians to lead the way, moved through the
1 Lettre du Phe Roubaud, 21 Octobre, 1767. Roubaud, who MW
the whole, mjb that tweWe hundred Indians joined the chase, and
that their jell* were terrific.
* The remains of Fort WiUiam Henry are now — 1882 — crowded
between a hotel and the wharf and station of a railway. While I
write, a scheme is on foot to leTel the whole for other railway struc-
tures. When I first knew the place, the g^und was in much the
tame state as in the time of Montcalm
* Lettre du Phrt Roubaud,
1757.] ADVANCE UPON THE FORT. 609
forest towards the fort, and Montcalm followed with
the main body ; then the artilleiy boats rounded the
point that had hid them from the sight of the Eng-
lish, saluting them as they did so with musketry and
cannon; while a host of savages put out upon the
lake, ranged their canoes abreast in a line from shore
to shore, and advanced slowly, with measured paddle-
strokes and yells of defiance.
The position of the enemy was full in sight before
them. At the head of the lake, towards the right,
stood the fort, close to the edge of the water. On
its left was a marsh ; then the rough piece of ground
where Johnson had encamped two years before; then
a low, flat, rocky hill, crowned with an inti*enched
camp; and, lastly, on the extreme left, another
marsh. Far around the fort and up the slopes of the
western mountain the forest had been cut down and
burned, and the ground was cumbered with black-
ened stumps and charred carcasses and limbs of fallen
trees, strewn in savage disorder one upon another. ^
This was the work of Winslow in the autumn before.
Distant shouts and war-cries, the clatter of musketry,
white puffs of smoke in the dismal clearing and along
the scorched edge of the bordering forest, told that
Levis' Indians were skirmishing with parties of the
English, who had gone out to save the cattle roam-
ing in the neighborhood, and bum some out-buildings
that would have favored the besiegers. Others were
1 Pr€ci9 des ^v^kementi de la Campagne de 1767 en la NouveUe
France
610 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1767.
taking down the tents that stood on a plateau neai
the foot of the mountain on the right, and moving
them to the intrenchment on the hill. The garrison
sallied from the fort to support their comrades, and
for a time the firing was hot.
Fort William Henry was an irregular bastioned
square, formed by embankments of gravel sur-
mounted by a rampart of heavy logs, laid in tiers
crossed one upon another, the interstices filled with
earth. The lake protected it on the north, the
marsh on the east, and ditches with chevaux-de-frise
on the south and west. Seventeen cannon, great
and small, besides several mortars and swivels, were
mounted upon it; ^ and a brave Scotch veteran,
Lieutenant-Colonel Monro, of the thirty-fifth regi-
ment, was in command.
General Webb lay fourteen miles distant at Fort
Edward, with twenty-six hundred men, chiefly
provincials. On the twenty-fifth of July he had
made a visit to Fort William Henry, examined the
place, given some orders, and returned on the twenty-
ninth. He then wrote to the governor of New York,
telling him that the French were certainly coming,
begging him to send up the militia, and saying: ^^I
am determined to march to Fort William Henry
with the whole army under my command as soon as I
shall hear of the farther approach of the enemy."
1 Aai des Effets et Munitions de Guerre qui se tont trouv^ au Fori
GuiUaume-Henri, There were six more gun* in the intrenched
camp.
1767] INDECISION OF WEBB. 611
Instead of doing so he waited three days, and then
sent up a detachment of two hundred regulars under
Lieutenant-Colonel Young, and eight hundred Massa-
chusetts men under Colonel Fiye. This raised the
force at the lake to two thousand and two hundred,
including sailors and mechanics, and reduced that of
Webb to sixteen hundred, besides half as many more
distributed at Albany and the intervening forts. ^ If,
according to his spirited intention, he should go to
the rescue of Monro, he must leave some of his
troops behind him to protect the lower posts from a
possible French inroad by way of South Bay. Thua
his power of aiding Monro was slight, so rashly had
Loudon, intent on Louisbourg, left this frontier open
to attack. The defect, however, was as much in
Webb himself as in his resources. His conduct in
the past year had raised doubts of his personal
courage; and this was the moment for answering
them. Great as was the disparity of numbers, the
emergency would have justified an attempt to save
Monro at any risk. That officer sent him a hasty
note, written at nine o'clock on the morning of the
third, telling him that the French were in sight on
the lake ; and, in the next night, three rangers came
to Fort Edward, bringing another short note, dated
at six in the evening, announcing that the firing had
begun, and closing with the words : " I believe you
will think it proper to send a reinforcement as soon
1 Frye, Journal of the Attack of Fort WiUiam Henry. Webb U
Loudtm, 1 Auguet^ 1757. Ihid., 5 August, VJbl.
612 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1767.
as possible." Now, if ever, was the time to move,
before the fort was invested and access cut off. But
Webb lay quiet, sending expresses to New England
for help which could not possibly arrive in time.
On the next night, another note came from Monro
to say that the French were upon him in great num-
bers, well supplied with artillery, but that the gar-
rison were all in good spirits. ^^I make no doubt,*'
wrote the hard-pressed officer, ^that you will soon
send us a reinforcement; " and again on the same
day: ^ We are very certain that a part of the enemy
have got between you and us upon the high road,
and would therefore be glad (if it meets with your
approbation) the whole army was marched.*'^ But
Webb gave no sign.*
When the skirmishing around the fort was over,
La Come, with a body of Indians, occupied the road
that led to Fort Edward, and L^vis encamped hard
by to support him, while Montcalm proceeded to
examine the ground and settle his plan of attack.
He made his way to the rear of the intrenched camp
and reconnoitred it, hoping to carry it by assault;
but it had a breastwork of stones and logs, and he
1 Copy of four Letters from Lieutenant-Colonel Monro to Major'
General Webb^ enclosed in the General's Letter of thejiflk of August to
the Earl of Loudon,
* " The number of troops remaining under my Command at this
place [Fort Edward], excluding the Posts on Hudson's River,
amounts to but sixteen hundred men fit for duty, with which Army,
so much inferior to that of the enemy, I did not think it prudent to
pursue my first intentions of Marching to their Assistance." —
WeU to Loudon, 5 August, 1767.
\
1757.] MONTCALM'S PREPARATIONS. 613
thought the attempt too hazardous. The ground
where he stood was that where Dieskau had been
defeated ; and as the fate of his predecessor was not
of flattering augury, he resolved to besiege the fort
in form.
He chose for the site of his operations the ground
now covered by the village of Caldwell. A little to
the north of it was a ravine, beyond which he formed
his main camp, while L^vis occupied a tract of dry
ground beside the marsh, whence he could easily
move to intercept succors from Fort Edward on the
one hand, or repel a sortie from Fort William Henry
on the other. A brook ran down the ravine and
entered the lake at a small cove protected from the
fire of the fort by a point of land; and at this place,
still called Artillery Cove, Montcalm prepared to
debark his cannon and mortars.
Having made his preparations, he sent Fontbrune,
one of his aides-de-camp, with a letter to Monro.
**I owe it to humanity," he wrote, "to summon you
to surrender. At present I can restrain the savages,
and make them observe the terms of a capitulation,
as I might not have power to do under other circum-
stances; and an obstinate defence on your part could
only retard the capture of the place a few days, and
endanger an unfortunate garrison which cannot be
relieved, in consequence of the dispositions I have
made. I demand a decisive answer within an hour.'*
Monro replied that he and his soldiers would defend
themselves to the last. While the flags of truce
VOL. I. — 83
514 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757
were flying, the Indians swarmed over the fields before
the fort; and when they learned the result, an
Abenaki chief shouted in broken French: "You
won't surrender, eh ! Fire away then, and fight your
best; for if I catch you, you shall get no quarter."
Monro emphasized his refusal by a general discharge
of his cannon.
The trenches were opened on the night of the
fourth, — a task of extreme difficulty, as the ground
was covered by a profusion of half-burned stumps,
roots, branches, and fallen trunks. Eight hundred
men toiled till daylight with pick, spade, and axe,
while the cannon from the fort flashed through the
darkness, and grape and round-shot whistled and
screamed over their heads. Some of the English
balls reached the camp beyond the ravine, and dis-
turbed the slumbers of the officers off duty, as they
lay wrapped in their blankets and bearnskins. Before
daybreak the first parallel was made; a battery was
nearly finished on the left, and another was begun on
the right. The men now worked under cover, safe
in their burrows ; one gang relieved another, and the
work went on all day.
The Indians were far from doing what was expected
of them. Instead of scouting in the direction of Fort
Edward to learn the movements of the enemy and
prevent surprise, they loitered about the camp and in
the trenches, or amused themselves by firing at the
fort from behind stumps and logs. Some, in imitation
of the French, dug little trenches for themselves, in
1757.] COMPLAINT OF THE INDIANS. 615
which they wormed their way towards the rampart|
and now and then picked off an artillery-man, not
without loss on their own side. On the afternoon of
the fifth, Montcalm invited them to a council, gave
them belts of wampum, and mildly remonstrated with
them. "Why expose yourselves without necessity?
I grieve bitterly over the losses that you have met,
for the least among you is precious to me. No doubt
it is a good thing to annoy the English; but that is
not the main point. You ought to inform me of
everything the enemy is doing, and always keep
parties on the road between the two forts." And he
gently hinted that their place was not in his camp,
but in that of L^vis, where missionaries were provided
for such of them as were Christians, and food and
ammunition for them all. They promised, with
excellent docility, to do everything he wished, but
added that there was something on their hearts.
Being encouraged to relieve themselves of the burden,
they complained that they had not been consulted as
to the management of the siege, but were expected to
obey orders like slaves. "We know more about
fighting in the woods than you," said their orator;
"ask our advice, and you will be the better for it."*
Montcalm assured them that if they had been
neglected, it was only through the hurry and confu-
sion of the time ; expressed high appreciation of theii
talents for bush-fighting, promised them ample satis-
faction, and ended by telling them that in the mom*
^ BougainyUle, JottmaL
516 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757
ing they should hear the big guns. This greatly
pleased them, for they were extremely impatient for
the artillery to begin. About sunrise the battery of
the left opened with eight heavy cannon and a mortar,
jomed, on the next morning, by the battery of the
right, with eleven pieces more. The fort replied
with spirit. The cannon thundered all day, and
from a hundred peaks and crags the astonished wil-
derness roared back the sound. The Indians were
delighted. They wanted to point the guns ; and to
humor them, they were now and then allowed to do
so. Others lay behind logs and fallen trees, and
yelled their satisfaction when they saw the splinters
fly from the wooden rampart.
Day after day the weary roar of the distant can-
nonade fell on the ears of Webb in his camp at Fort
Edward. "I have not yet received the least rein-
forcement," he writes to Loudon; ^^this is the disa-
greeable situation we are at present in. The fort, by
the heavy firing we hear from the lake, is still in our
possession; but I fear it cannot long hold out against
so warm a cannonading if I am not reinforced by a
sufficient number of militia to march to their relief. "
The militia were coming; but it was impossible that
many could reach him in less than a week. Those
from New York alone were within call, and two
thousand of them arrived soon after he sent Loudon
the above letter. Then, by stripping all the forts
below, he could bring together forty-five hundred
men; while several French deserters assured him that
1757.] INTERCEPTED LETTER. 617
Montcalm had nearly twelve thousand. To advance
to the relief of Monro with a force so inferior, through
a defile of rocks, forests, and mountains, made by-
nature for ambuscades, — and this too with troops
who had neither the steadiness of regulars nor the
bush -fighting skill of Indians, — was an enterprise for
firmer nerve than his.
He had already warned Monro to expect no help
from him. At midnight of the fourth, Captain
Bartman, his aide-de-camp, wrote: ^^The General
has ordered me to acquaint you lie does not think it
prudent to attempt a junction or to assist you till
reinforced by the militia of the colonies, for the
immediate march of which repeated expresses have
been sent.*' The letter then declared that the French
were in complete possession of the road between the
two forts, that a prisoner just brought in reported
their force in men and cannon to be very great, and
that, unless the militia came soon, Monro had better
make what terms he could with the enemy.*
The chance was small that this letter would reach
its destination; and in fact the bearer was killed by
La Gome's Indians, who, in stripping the body, found
the hidden paper, and earned it to the general.
Montcalm kept it several days, till the English ram-
part was half battered down ; and then, after salut-
ing his enemy with a volley from all his cannon, he
1 Frje, m his Journal, giYes the letter in full. A sporious trans-
lation of it 18 appended to a piece caUed Jugement impartial $ur let
Operations miliiaires en Canada,
518 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [17S7.
Bent it with a graceful compliment to Monro. It
was Bougainville wlio carried it, preceded by a
drummer and a flag. He was met at the foot of the
glacis, blindfolded, atfd led through the fort and
along the edge of the lake to the intrenched camp,
where Monro was at the time. " He returned many
thanks," writes the emissary in his Diary, "for the
courtesy of our nation, and protested his joy at hav-
ing to do with so generous an enemy. This was his
answer to the Marquis de Montcalm. Then they led
me back, always with eyes blinded ; and our batteries
began to fire again as soon as we thought that the
English grenadiers who escorted me had had time to
re-enter the fort. I hope Greneral Webb's letter may
induce the English to surrender the sooner." ^
By this time the sappers had worked their way to
the angle of the lake, where they were stopped by a
marshy hollow, beyond which was a tract of high
ground, reaching to the fort and serving as the
garden of the garrison.^ Logs and fascines in large
quantities were thrown into the hollow, and hurdles
were laid over them to form a causeway for the
cannon. Then the sap was continued up the accliv-
ity beyond, a trench was opened in the garden, and a
battery begun, not two hundred and fifty yards from
the fort. The Indians, in great number, crawled
forward among the beans, maize, and cabbages, and
1 Bougainyille, Journal. Bougainville au Ministre, 19 AoQt, 1757.
s Now (1882) the site of Fort William Henry Hotel, with itt
grounds. The hollow is partly filled by the main road of Caldwell.
J757.] A DESPERATE SITUATION. 519
lay there ensconced. On the night of the seventh,
two men came out of the fort, apparently to recon*
noitre, with a view to a sortie, when they were
greeted by a general volley and a burst of yells which
echoed among the mountains ; followed by responsive
whoops pealing through the darkness from the various
camps and lurking-places of the savage warriors far
and near.
The position of the besieged was now deplorable.
More than three hundred of them had been killed
and wounded; small-pox was raging in the fort; the
place was a focus of infection, and the casemates
were crowded with the sick. A sortie from the
intrenched camp and another from the fort had been
repulsed with loss. All tlieir large cannon and
mortars had been burst, or disabled by shot; only
seven small pieces were left fit for service ; ^ and tlie
whole of Montcalm's thirty-one cannon and fifteen
mortars and howitzers would soon open fire, while
the walls were already breached, and an assault was
imminent Through the night of the eighth they
fired briskly from all their remaining pieces. In the
morning the officers held a council, and all agreed to
surrender if honorable terms could be had. A white
flag was raised, a drum was beat, and Lieutenant-
Colonel Young, mounted on horseback, for a shot in
the foot had disabled him from walking, went, fol-
lowed by a few soldiers, to the tent of Montcalm.
It was agreed that the English troops should march
1 Frye, Journal,
520 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 11757.
-^IHi
out with the honors of war, and be escorted to Fort
Edward by a detachment of French troops; that
they should not serve for eighteen months ; and that
all French prisoners captured in America since the
war began should be given up within three months*
The stores, munitions, and artillery were to be the
prize of the victors, except one field-piece, which
the garrison were to retain in recognition of their
brave defence.
Before signing the capitulation Montcalm called
the Indian chiefs to council, and asked them to con-
sent to the conditions, and promise to restrain their
young warriors from any disorder. They approved
everything and promised everything. The garrison
then evacuated the fort, and marched to join their
comrades in the intrenched camp, which was included
in the surrender. No sooner were they gone than a
crowd of Indians clambered through the embrasures
in search of rum and plunder. All the sick men
unable to leave their beds were instantly butchered.^
^ I was witness of this spectacle,*' says the missionary
Roubaud; "I saw one of these barbarians come out
of the casemates with a human head in his hand,
from which the blood ran in streams, and which he
paraded as if he had got the finest prize in the world."
There was little left to plunder; and the Indiana,
joined by the more lawless of the Canadians, turned
their attention to the intrenched camp, where all the
English were now collected.
1 Attestation of WiUiam Arbuthnct, Captain in Frjfe*$ Regiwtmi,
1757.] CONFUSION IN CAMP. 521
The French gtiard stationed there could not or
would not keep out the rabble. By the advice of
Montcalm the English stove their rum-barrels; but
the Indians were drunk already with homicidal rage,
and the glitter of their vicious eyes told of the devil
within. They roamed among the tents, intrusive,
insolent, their visages besmirched with war-paint;
grinning like fiends as they handled, in anticipation
of the knife, the long hair of cowering women, of
whom, as well as of children, there were many in the
camp, all crazed with fright. Since the last war the
New England border population had regarded Indians
with a mixture of detestation and horror. Their
mysterious warfare of ambush and surprise, their
midnight onslaughts, their butcheries, their burnings,
and all their nameless atrocities, had been for years
the theme of fireside story; and the dread they
excited was deepened by the distrust and dejection
of the time. The confusion in the camp lasted
through the afternoon. " The Indians, " says Bougain-
ville, ^^ wanted to plunder the chests of the English;
the latter resisted; and there was fear that serious
disorder would ensue. The Marquis de Montcalm
ran thither immediately, and used every means to
restore tranquillity: prayers, threats, caresses, inter-
position of the officers and interpreters who have
some influence over these savages."^ ^^ We shall be
but too happy if we can prevent a massacre. Detest-
able position ! of which nobody who has not been in
i BougainviUe au Ministre, 19 Ao4U, 1757-
622 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
it can have any idea, and which makes victory itself
a sorrow to the victors. The Marquis spared no
efforts to prevent the rapacity of the savages and, I
must say it, of certain persons associated with them,
from resulting in something worse than plunder. At
last, at nine o'clock in the evening, order seemed
restored. The Marquis even induced the Indians to
promise that, besides the escort agreed upon in the
capitulation, two chiefs for each tribe should accom-
pany the English on their way to Fort Edward."^
He also ordered La Corne and the other Canadian
officers attached to the Indians to see that no violence
took place. He might well have done more. In
view of the disorders of the afternoon, it would not
have been too much if he had ordered the whole body
of regular troops, whom alone he could trust for the
purpose, to hold themselves ready to move to the
spot in case of outbreak, and shelter their defeated
foes behind a hedge of bayonets.
Bougainville was not to see what ensued; for
Montcalm now sent him to Montreal, as a special
messenger to carry news of the victory. He em-
barked at ten o'clock. Returning daylight found
him far down the lake ; and as he looked on its still
bosom flecked with mists, and its quiet mountains
sleeping under the flush of dawn, there was nothing
in the wild tranquillity of the scene to suggest the
tragedy which even then was beginning on the shora
he had left behind.
\757.] INDIAN OUTRAGES. 523
The English in their camp had passed a troubled
night, agitated by strange rumors. In the morning
something like a panic seized them; for they dis-
trusted not the Indians only, but the Canadians. In
their haste to be gone they got together at daybreak,
before the escort of three hundred regulars had
arrived. They had their muskets, but no ammuni-
tion; and few or none of the provincials had bayo-
nets. £arly as it was, the Indians were on the alert;
and, indeed, since midnight great numbers of them
had been prowling about the skirts of the camp,
showing, says Colonel Frye, " more than usual malice
in their looks." Seventeen wounded men of his
regiment lay in huts, unable to join the march. In
the preceding afternoon Miles Whitworth, the regi-
mental surgeon, had passed them over to the care of
a French surgeon, according to an ag^ement made
at the time of the surrender; but, the Frenchman
being absent, the other remained with them attending
to their wants. The French surgeon had caused
special sentinels to be posted for their protection.
These were now removed, at the moment when they
were needed most; upon which, about five o'clock in
the morning, the Indians entered the huts, dragged
out the inmates, and tomahawked and scalped them
all, before the eyes of Whitworth, and in presence of
La Come and other Canadian officers, as well as of
a French guard stationed within forty feet of the
spot; and, declares the surgeon under oath, ^^none,
either officer or soldier, protected the said wounded
624 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
men."^ The opportune butchery relieved them of a
troublesome burden.
A scene of plundering now began. The escort had
by this time arrived, and Monro complained to the
officers that the capitulation was broken; but got no
other answer than advice to give up the baggage to
the Indians in order to appease them. To this the
English at length agreed ; but it only increased the
excitement of the mob. They demanded rum ; and
some of the soldiers, afraid to refuse, gave it to them
from their canteens, thus adding fuel to the flame.
When, after much difficulty, the column at last got
out of the camp and began to move along the road
that crossed the rough plain between the intrench-
ment and the forest, the Indians crowded upon them,
impeded their march, snatched caps, coats, and
weapons from men and officers, tomahawked those
that resisted, and, seizing upon shrieking women and
children, dragged them off or murdered them on the
spot. It is said that some of the interpreters secretly
fomented the disorder.^ Suddenly there rose the
screech of the war-whoop. At this signal of butch-
ery, which was given by Abenaki Christians from
the mission of the Penobscot,^ a mob of savages
rushed upon the New Hampshire men at the rear of
the column, and killed or dragged away eighty of
1 Affidavit of Miles Whitworth. See Appendix F.
* This it stated by Poaehot and Bougainville; the latter of
whom eonflrms the testimony of the English witnesses, that
Canadian officers present did nothing to check the Indians.
* See note, end of chapter
1757.] THE MASSACRE. 525
them.^ A frightful tumult ensued, when Montcalm,
L^vis, Bourlamaque, and many other French officeis,
who had hastened from their camp on the first news
of disturhance, threw themselves among the Indians,
and by promises and threats tried to allay their
frenzy. ^^Kill me, but spare the English who are
under my protection," exclaimed Montcalm. He
took from one of them a young officer whom the
savage had seized; upon which several other Indians
immediately tomahawked their prisoners, lest they
too should be taken from them. One writer says
that a French g^nadier was killed and two wounded
in attempting to restore order; but the statement is
doubtful. The English seemed paralyzed, and for-
tunately did not attempt a resistance, which, without
ammunition as they were, wovdd have ended in a
general massacre. Their broken column straggled
forward in wild disorder, amid the din of whoops and
shrieks, till they reached the French advance-guard,
which consisted of Canadians; and here they de^
manded protection from the officers, who refused to
give it, telling them that they must take to the
woods and shift for themselves. Frye was seized by
a number of Indians, who, brandishing spears and
tomahawks, threatened him with death and tore off
his clothing, leaving nothing but breeches, shoes,
and shirt. Repelled by the officers of the guard, he
^ Belknap, History of New Hampshire, gays that eighty were
kiUed. Gk>Ycmor Wentworth, writing immediately after the erent^
•ays " killed or captiTated."
626 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
made for the woods. A Connecticut soldier who
was present says of him that he leaped upon an
Indian who stood in his way, disarmed and killed
him, and then escaped; but Frye himself does not
mention the incident. Captain Burke, also of the
Massachusetts regiment, was stripped, after a violent
struggle, of all his clothes ; then broke loose, gained
the woods, spent the night shivering in the thick
grass of a marsh, and on the next day reached Fort
Edward. Jonathan Carver, a provincial volunteer,
declares that, when the tumult was at its height, he
saw officers of the French army walking about at a
little distance and talking with seeming unconcern.
Three or four Indians seized him, brandished their
tomahawks over his head, and tore off most of his
clothes, while he vainly claimed protection from a
sentinel, who called him an English dog, and violently
pushed him back among his tormentors. Two of
them were dragging him towards the neighboring
swamp, when an English officer, stripped of every-
thing but his scarlet breeches, ran by. One of
Carver's captors sprang upon him, but was thrown
to the ground; whereupon the other went to the aid
of his comrade and drove his tomahawk into the back
of the Englishman. As Carver turned to run, an
English boy, about twelve years old, clung to him
and begged for help. They ran on together for a
moment, when the boy was seized, dragged from his
protector, and, as Carver judged by his shrieks,
was murdered. He himself escaped to the forest^
1767.] EFFORTS OF MONTCALM. 627
and after three days of famine reached Fort
Edward.
The bonds of discipline seem for the time to have
been completely broken ; for while Montcalm and his
chief officers used every effort to restore order, even
at the risk of their lives, many other officers, chiefly
of the militia, failed atrociously to do their duty.
How many English were killed it is impossible to
tell with exactness. Roubaud says that he saw forty
or fifty corpses scattered about the field. L^vis says
fifty; which does not include the sick and wounded
before murdered in the camp and fort. It is certain
that six or seven hundred persons were carried off,
stripped, and otherwise maltreated. Montcalm suc-
ceeded in recovering more than four hundred of them
in the course of the day; and many of the French
officers did what they could to relieve their wants
by buying back from their captors the clothing that
had been torn from them. Many of the fugitives had
taken refuge in the fort, whither Monro himself had
gone to demand protection for his followers; and
here Roubaud presently found a crowd of half -frenzied
women, crying in anguish for husbands and children.
All the refugees and redeemed prisoners were after-
wards conducted to the intrenched camp, where food
and shelter were provided for them and a strong
guard set for their protection until the fifteenth,
when they were sent under an escort to Fort Edward.
Here cannon had been fired at intervals to guide
those who had fled to the woods, whence they came
628 FORT WILLIAM HENRY. [1757.
dropping in from day to day, half dead with
famine.
On the morning after the massacre the Indians
decamped in a body and set out for Montreal, carry-
ing with them their plunder and some two hundred
prisoners, who, it is said, could not be got out of
their hands. The soldiers were set to the work of
demolishing the English fort; and the task occupied
several days. The barracks were torn down, and the
huge pine-logs of the rampart thrown into a heap.
The dead bodies that filled the casemates were added
to the mass, and fire was set to the whole. The
mighty funeral pyre blazed all night. Then, on the
sixteenth, the army re-embarked. The din of ten
thousand combatants, the rage, the terror, the agony,
were gone; and no living thing was left but the
wolves that gathered from the mountains to feast
upon the dead.^
1 The foregoing chapter rests largely on eridence nerer before
brought to light, inclnding the minute Journal of Bougainville, — a
document which can hardly be commended too much, — the corre-
spondence of Webb, a letter of Colonel Frye, written just after the
massacre, and a journal of the siege, sent by him to Goyemor Pow-
nall as his official report. Extracts from these, as well as from the
affidavit of Dr. Whitworth, which is also new evidence, are given in
Appendix F.
The Diary of Malartic and the correspondence of Montcalm,
L6vis, Vaudreuil, and Bigot, also throw light on the campaign, as
well as numerous reports of the siege, official and semi-official.
The long letter of the Jesuit Roubaud, printed anonymously in the
Lettres Sdifiantes et Curieuses, gives a remarkably vivid account of
what he saw. He was an intelligent person, who may be trusted
where he has no motive for lying. Curious particulars about him
wiU be found in a paper caUed, The dephrabie Caae of Mr, RoMbamd,
1757.] SOURCES OF NARRATIVE. 629
printed in the Historical Mcigazine, Second Series, yiii. 282. Com-
pare Verreau, Report on Canadian Archives, 1874.
Impressions of the massacre at Fort William Henry hare
hitherto heen derired chiefly from the narratire of Captain Jona-
than Caryer, in his Travels, He has discredited himself hy his
exaggeration of the nnmher killed; hut his account of what he
himself saw, tallies with that of the other witnesses. He is outdone
in exaggeration hy an anonymous French writer of the time, who
seems rather pleased at the occurrence, and afllrms that all the
English were killed except seven hundred, these last being cap-
tured, so that none escaped (NouveUes du Canada envoy€es de Mont-
real, Ao4t, 1767). Carver puts killed and captured together at
fifteen hundred. Vaudreuii, who always makes light of Indian
barbarities, goes to the other extreme, and avers that no more than
five or six were killed. L^vis and Roubaud, who saw everything,
and were certain not to exaggerate the number, g^ve the most trust-
worthy evidence on this point. The capitulation, having been
broken by the allies of France, was declared void by the British
Grovemment.
The Signal of Butchery. Montcalm, Bougainville, and several
others say that the massacre was begun by the Abenakis of Pan»-
ouski. Father Martin, in quoting the letter in which Montcalm
makes this statement, inserts the word idolatres, which is not in the
original. Dussieux and O'Callaghan give the passage correctly.
This Abenaki band, ancestors of the present Fenobscots, were no
idolaters, but had been converted more than half a century. In the
official list of the Indian allies, they are set down among the Chris-
tians. Roubaud, who had charge of them during the expedition,
speaks of these and other converts with singular candor : " Youi
avez dd vous apercevoir . . . que nos sauvages, pour 6tre Chretiens,
n'en sont pas plus irr^pr^hensibles dans leur conduite."
END OP VOL. L
VOL. I. — 84
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